


Secrets of the Past

by HappyLeech



Series: Secrets of the Past [1]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Silent Hill, Silent Hill (Video Game Series)
Genre: Crossover, Diverts from Resdient Evil Canon sorry, Gen, Takes place after Silent Hill 3 so spoilers for that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:25:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 58,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/pseuds/HappyLeech
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After escaping Silent Hill, Cheryl Mason and Douglas Cartland start a new life in the town of Brahms. Close enough to Silent Hill to keep an eye out for anything odd, but far enough away that neither of them would be drawn back into that hell, everything was going smoothly.<br/>Until an off-shoot of the B.S.A.A decides that Silent Hill is hiding some Umbrella secrets...<br/>[Being edited/re-written]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!   
> This is my first full length, multi-chapter story, the only one I've finished yet, and because of that I'm going to be doing some MUCH needed edits to the story. So If you give this a read, and notice between two chapters there's a bit of a change in pacing or writing or even scene...Sorry! I'll fix it soon

It hadn’t been long after Heather and Douglas escaped from Silent Hill that they had both moved to Brahms. They had chosen Brahms because it was the nearest moderately sized town to Silent Hill, and because Heather wanted to stay near the town she’d, in a fashion, created. Douglas, feeling guilty about Harry’s death, felt the need to stay with the only person who’d experienced the hell with him, to look after her and, in a way, make it up to despite knowing he never would be able to. Heather changed her name back to Cheryl to avoid any questions about what had happened to her father, and went to the local high school to finish her lat years. Douglas joined the local police force as an independent detective, and, once out of high school, Heather applied to become an officer. Even though Brahms was on the small side for a city, they still had a large police force, mostly because of their proximity to Silent Hill, and Heather felt she would get some useful experience in case she ever needed to return.

Everything had been going wonderfully, Heather was working as a junior officer, and Douglas as a detective, until, 5 years later, something happened, some people came to town, and everything changed.

\--  
It was strange, Heather reflected, waking up without her father here. The old routine, a plate of food in one hand, scolding her for staying up so late, had faded to a newer one. Waking up to notes from Douglas on the counter, reminding her that he’d be away, working on a case, or that they needed eggs or chocolate milk, quickly became the norm in the household.

Heaving herself out of bed, Heather got dressed in her uniform, and walked to her car, several pieces of toast in her hand. She always drove to work, even though the walk to the station was about 10 minutes from the house. One of her irrational fears, one of many that she’d gained from Silent Hill, was the feeling of being watched. Even if she wasn’t being watched, as she walked from home to work and back again she could feel eyes on her, and it was emotionally draining. 

An entire 20 minutes early, Heather walked into the station lobby, intent on speaking with a few friends and coworker before getting down to work. However, as she stepped inside, she could see that the entire place was in some sort of frenzy. No one was really sitting in the lobby, Brahms being relatively crime-free, but Heather could hear people clamoring, and she could see a junior officer clutching a pile of papers like a life-line, standing in the hallways and looking at nothing. 

“Sam!” Heather walked over to the red-headed secretary at the front desk. “What’s going on? Did something happen?” Sam looked up at Heather and beamed, obviously excited by the commotion, something more exciting than taking payment for parking tickets and giving directions.

“Oh my god! Cheryl, you're finally here! You would not believe whats going on... Apparently, some government agents are here, talking to the Chief. And the crazy thing is...” Sam looked around, and whispered, “I heard they want to go to Silent Hill.” Even for someone as light-hearted as Sam, talking about Silent Hill was almost taboo.

Heather paled. “Silent Hill?” She was whispering as well, a force of habit, another quirk brought on by too much time in that town. “Why would they want to go there?”  
Sam pushed up her glasses with one hand, leaning forwards to talk to Heather. “I have no idea...No good has ever come from that place....And all of those disappearances....Maybe that’s-“ 

Sam wasn’t able to finish her statement, as Bill Hollandays, one of Heathers co-workers, called out to her.

“Mason!” Heather looked over where he was standing. “Chief’s calling a meeting! You’re lucky you came in early!”

“Be right there.” Heather turned back to Sam. “I’ll talk to you later then?”

“Sure thing, now get going! I bet this is about those agents....Tell me everything later, ok?”

Heather waved back as she walked with Hollandays into the large conference room. There were so many people in the room that the already short Chief had to stand on the table just to get everyone’s attention.

“Ok people! Are we all here?” The Chief was a strong looking woman named Cybil Bennett. Heather knew that Cybil had known her father, and that she had also gone through Silent Hill, but she didn’t feel comfortable speaking much with her. She didn’t want to face much probing into what happened after her dad had left with her from that place. Explaining what had happened to Harry, and why Heather had moved so close to the town that had killed him, was not something Heather was interested in doing quite yet. 

“Ok everyone, quiet down. Now, we have a...unusual situation on our hands. As some of you have already heard, there is a group of people in the city who “need” to get into Silent Hill.”

Everyone went quiet. No one even liked think of the town that was so close. Finally though, after so quiet muttering and whispers, someone asked what was on all of their minds.

“Why are they here then? Why haven't they just gone into Silent Hill?”

Cybil sighed. “Because they want someone to take them there and accompany them throughout the town. They tried elsewhere, Shepherds Glen I think they said, but no one would agree to come with them. So they’ve come here, looking for....volunteers to show them around the town.”

There was a silence, broken by the sounds of people shifting, and then someone cried out, angry and scared. Heather was sure that it was the juinor officer she'd seen earlier.  
“What!? Are you kidding me?! There’s no way any of us are going to want to go there! I don’t care who these people are, there is no way I’m going within 5000 miles of that...place!” 

Heather nodded, agreeing with the statement, as everyone else began to nervously chatter.

“Quiet down!” Cybil roared, before sighing. “Don’t worry, most of you are exempt from this...They seem to only want people who have been to Silent Hill before.”

There was another silence as the gathered people tried to figure out if “going when I was 6 and stupid to the theme park” counted as going to Silent Hill.

“If you want to do this, just come and talk to me. I’ll be in my office....Now, get back to work!”

Everyone broke away, rapidly leaving the room to give out parking tickets and jaywalking fines, leaving Heather and Cybil almost alone. Cybil turned to Heather, nodded once, and hopped off the table, heading to her office. 

\--

Heather went through the rest of her day in a haze after the announcement. After arriving back at her house after work, and after checking the locks to make sure no one had gotten in or taken anything, she pulled a blanket around her shoulders, and sat on the couch, staring into nothing. It was about an hour and a half before Douglas returned from work, a pizza and a box of Heathers favourite take-out in his hands.

“Hey. I heard about the announcement. Are you ok...?” he trailed off, giving her a concerned look that she didn’t seem to notice, or plain out ignored.

They ate in silence, until Heather exploded, angrily voicing what she’d been thinking all day as she chewed on her plastic fork.

“They want people who’ve been to Silent Hill before, and I know that there are only 3 people who have really been there, and that’s me, you, and Cybil! But Cybil’s the chief, so she can’t just up and leave, and you’re too old to do that again. Sorry, but it’s true...I don't want you ending up like dad. So that just leaves me....I really, really don’t want to go back there but....” She trailed off, eyes focusing on a patch of peeling wall paper behind Douglas’s shoulder.

“But? But what?” Douglas raised an eyebrow, before starting up again. “If you’re thinking what I know you’re thinking, then I’m coming with you. You need someone else who knows the town with you. You saved my ass last time; I need a chance to repay you for that.” 

With that said, he finished off his piece of pizza and stood. “Shall I call Cybil then? And tell her that we’ll be the ones going?” 

Heather nodded, her mouth busy scarfing down the Chinese she’d been ignoring in favour of feeling depressed and nervous. She finally swallowed and said, “I want to meet with these people first. I want to know if they truly understand what they are getting themselves, and us, into.”

Douglas nodded, and picked up the phone, dialing the number as Heather hoped that she wasn't making a horrible mistake.


	2. Chapter 2

After a restless night, where Heather tossed and turned and drempt of bad memories, she only wanted a moment to talk to Sam before being flung right into things. But the next day, Heather barely had a chance to say hi before she and Douglas were pulled into Cybil’s office.

Sam was sitting behind her desk when Heather arrived, but stood when Heather was pulled away by Cybil. "Hey, what's-?"

Heather mouthed “I’ll tell you later” over her shoulder as she was lead through the station, through the people trying to look inconspicuous as they tried to see who the hell the people trying to get into Silent Hill were. Cybil shouldered open the office door open, and motioned for Heather to join Douglas inside. As she walked inside, to took a quick glance at the other people inside.

Cybil followed after Heather, and smiled warmly. “Cheryl, Douglas, thank you so much for volunteering for this. Please, sit.” She motioned to two chairs, opposite of the visitors as she herself sat down. 

Right away, Heather could tell that they were professionals instead of the amateurs she was expecting. They were all wearing bullet-proof armour under their clothing, and she counted at least two concealed handguns. _‘Maybe these guys won’t be the push-overs I envisioned…’_ She thought as she sat, shooting a look at Douglas. He returned the look, and she knew that he'd noticed as well.

“Cheryl, Douglas, let me introduce you. This is Rebecca Chambers,” A young woman with short red-brown hair looked up and smiled. “Jill Valentine,” an older woman nodded in their direction. “Chris Redfield,” A muscular man also nodded at them, an indistinguishable look on his face. “His sister, Claire Redfield,” Another young woman smiled at them, her pony-tail bobbing as she nodded at them as well. “And Barry Burton.” An older man with a beard smiled warmly and lent over the table to shake both of their hands. "Now," she said, "Why don’t you inform my officers of your plan while I go and take care of some things?”

Heather watched Cybil walk out of the room, hearing her barking orders at loiterers, lecturing everyone on why they _'shouldn't be eavesdropping. It's not professional and she knows that they have other things they should be working on.’_

With a chuckle, Heather turned to the people who were to be her new co-workers. “Hello, I’m Cheryl Mason.”

“And I’m Douglas Cartland.” Douglas offered his hand out of habit, getting a handshake from everyone.

“Hello." The one man, Chris, said, leaning forwards. Heather got the idea that he was the one in charge, and focused all her attention on him. "Now, I'd just like to offer up a little bit more about ourselves before we start explaining what we're doing here. All of us, minus Claire, were members of the S.T.A.R.S team based in Raccoon City. I'm going to assume that you know what happened there?" Heather nodded. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but she recognized the name, knew that it had been destroyed. Not to mention Douglas would mention it once and a while. "Good, that makes things a bit easier. Now, I'm sure you’re probably wondering why we’re trying to get into Silent Hill, but first I have a question. Why is everyone so weary of the place? I thought it was just a tourist town....” Chris said, and Heather could see the look the woman, Jill gave them as her and Douglas paled.

“Well....” They both started speaking, but Douglas paused, letting Heather speak instead.

“There have been an abnormal amount of murders. Reports of "accidents" that result in the loss of life are almost as prevalent as the murder reports. There are increasing numbers of suicides and suicide attempts. Missing person's reports are more prevalent than anywhere else in the area. People go into the town, and they don't usually come back. The nearest psych facility is in Silent Hill, and a good deal of people who are sent there have come out of the town raving about monsters. People who are not superstitious at all tend to stay away for the place. There is a local cult, called "The Order", which is central to the town and is said to produce and distribute an extremely dangerous drug that is circulated throughout the town, perhaps indirectly or directly leading to a number of those issues. ” 

Heather let them digest what she had said, hell, she needed a moment to digest what she'd said, before asking the question that she, Douglas, and the entire station wanted an answer for.

“So, why are you folks going to Silent Hill?”

The group looked at each other, and Heather saw Claire look to Rebecca, a worried look on her face, before Chris asked a question of his own. 

“How much do you know about Umbrella Corps. and their involvement in the Raccoon City Incident?”

Douglas had a sour look on his face as he replied. "Umbrella Corp. basically ran Raccoon, and there was an "accidental" spill of whatever they were working on. I'm not sure what they were trying to make, but it cause such a large biohazard that the city was quarantined, and then bombed. Luckily my sister and her kids got out on time, but...Why do you ask? Didn't they go out of business right after?"

“Well, the reason we want to investigate Silent Hill is that we believe that Umbrella is illegally conducting-” Chris paused for a moment, trying to find the right words to use. “-Experiments there and we need the proof before we can take action.”

Heather and Douglas were quiet for a moment, Heather wondering what type of experiments the company had been working on, when Douglas asked “So, do you think that’s why Silent Hill is the way it is?”  
“We think so. We’ve been asked by the United States government to find and shut down any Umbrella facilities still located in North America. We are also trying to get permission to do the same in the other continents. “Jill said, pulling out a file folder. “Rebecca here did some research into the town...maybe you two could look over it?”

Douglas took the folder, and passed it to Heather, who didn't really think it would be all that useful to her. “Thanks.”

“So...” Claire spoke up, looking nervous, before wincing as she was elbowed by Rebecca.

“Yes?” Heather asked, flipping through the file, not really focusing on it. It really was just a more in depth rehash of what she'd told them, nothing new at all. 

“Why exactly did you guys decide to volunteer for this? Everywhere else we went, people started praying and crossing themselves whenever we mentioned Silent Hill.” She quickly asked, before going "ow!" as she was elbowed again.

“Well, when the chief explained that you wanted to go to Silent Hill, well, no one wanted to step forwards at all. Then the chief said she only wanted volunteers who'd been to Silent Hill before, and, well, we were the only ones. So we were kind of...volunteered by proxy. And we’re also getting half a year’s pay each for this too.” Heather smiled as Douglas chuckled.

“Well, okay. Would you mind telling us when you went to Silent Hill and why? Just so we have an idea of how knowledgeable you'll be?” Chris asked. Heather was starting to wonder if any of the others were going to speak up or if it was only going to be Chris asking the questions.

“I had gone when I was younger for a family vacation, but the last time I was there was 5 years ago , for....personal reasons. Considering my father’s death.” Heather’s face switched from friendly to less than friendly as she replied. 5 years wasn't long enough, and just mentioning it made her heart ache. 

Claire muttered her sympathies quietly as Douglas spoke up. “I’ve been there twice, once on a missing persons case...oh...about 10 years ago. And then I accompanied Cheryl there 5 years ago as well.”

“Missing persons? Did you ever find them?” Barry asked, curious.

“No, never did...Footage from a rest stop shows that he got to the town, but after that...” Douglas shrugged, and Heather could see the distant look in his eyes.

“Well...” Heather broke the awkward silence that had permeated the room. “When do you plan on leaving for the town? I'd like to know how much time I have to prepare.”

“We’re hoping for some time tomorrow morning. Around 10? Is that a good time for the two of you? I know it doesn’t leave a lot of time to get ready, but we’d like to be in the town before nightfall." Jill said, and the others nodded in agreement.

“That should work for us...Can we take this file?” Heather held up the file, then tucked it away when Rebecca nodded. It was more to seem like she was interested in preparing herself by reading the file, but Heather knew it would only get left on the table or somewhere else where it would get covered in more important things.

“It was a pleasure meeting you.” Chris said as his and his team stood, shook hands with the both of them again, and left the room. Heather and Douglas sayed sitting in the room for a moment, before Douglas stood. 

"Well, I'm going to hang around here for a bit, but I'm going to assume that you are heading back home?" he asked, and Heather nodded.  
"Yeah, I want to get ready. Did you want to look at this at all?" she asked, motioning to the file folder on the table, but Douglas shook his head.  
"No, you can take that with you. We'll recycle it or something after this venture." Heather stood as well, and they walked out of the room together.

As Heather walked out, she could see people, ever nosey. peeking out of rooms and over cubicles at her and Douglas. He deviated and wandered into the coffee room, but Heather hurried to the front desk so she could talk to Sam. It had technically been Heather’s day off, so she wanted a chance to talk to Sam before heading into town.

“So, Cheryl? Is it true? That you and Douglas are going to Silent Hill with them...” Sam looked rightfully worried, chewing on her nails.

“Yeah, it’s true...but how did you know?" Heather asked, and Sam smiled. 

"Oh, those people told me when they were leaving. But I can't believe you! Why would you ever want to go back?" Sam asked, slumping down in her chair.

Heather chuckled. "Well, I mean, there's the pay but....Really, I want to see how much it's changed, if it’s changed, since I was there last...” Heather frowned slightly. “But, you know me. I think that town should be listed as a ghost town and have all of its roads blocked off...”

“Yeah...But, they’re from the government, right?” Heather nodded. “So that would mean that just blocking the roads wouldn’t stop them from going in there. Besides....don't people still live there?”

“Oh, right. I forget that there are still people that actually live there. Who knows how...Well, I've got to get going now. I’ll call you up when we get back and I’ll tell you all about it while we watch girly movies and eat fatty foods. I have a feeling that I’ll need it.” 

Sam grinned. “Oh yeah! I’ll bring the movies if you pay for the food.”

"Deal." Heather grinned as well, and, waving, left the station.

\--

 

Heather stood in the entrance hall, breathing deeply, eyes screwed shut. How could this have happened? Finally, she knew she had no other choice, and ran past the kitchen.

“Damn it Douglas! I though you said you were going to put that garbage out yesterday!” Heather muttered, finally exhaling as she entered her room. Free of the stench of old fast food cartons, she sat on her bed, took another deep breath, and then started listing off things she’d need for her “mission”.

“I’ll need pants, no skirts this time fore me, maybe jeans...” She stood by her closet, and pulled out the best choices. “Then a long sleeved shirt, a turtle-neck? Maybe a long sleeved t-shirt...” She pulled a turtle neck out of the closet, and a t-shirt from her dresser and frowned at them, before throwing them onto her bed.

“Then my combat boots, work gloves and long socks.” She pulled them out and put them with the other articles of clothing, still unsure about which shirt to wear.

“Now...” She stopped, trying to think if it was a good idea to wear the bullet-proof vest she’d found in that hellish mall instead of her work issued one. Heather stared at the both of them, before muttering, “I’ll decide later...”

She then picked up a white vest, not unlike the one she’d worn 5 years prior, and a fanny pack with multiple pouches. She set the pack down on her bed, and took the vest over to her side table. She pulled out the drawer, and took out the flashlight and radio from the mall. Heather credited them for keeping her alive in Silent Hill the first time, so she knew that she had to bring them with her this time.

Decisions done, she finally packed the t-shirt, some extra supplies, and weapons in a sturdy backpack. She placed everything else she needed on her desk, and then, feeling antsy and apprehensive, she strapped the katana she’d pilfered from the art gallery to her hip. She’d taken a couple of classes on how to properly us it, but she was in no way proficient at all with it. At least she wouldn’t be flailing around with it if attacked anymore. 

Looking at her supplies, Heather decided against poking and prodding at what she'd packed. Looking at her watch, she raised an eyebrow. It had felt like she's spent only minutes in her room, but Heather had been in there for an hour. Shaking her head, she held her breath again, and ran past the rancid garbage into the living room. Crouching on the couch, she turned on the small t.v. 

Maybe if she was lucky, she’d find some good reruns to watch.


	3. Chapter 3

After another restless night, Heather and Douglas made their way to work, dropping off the trash as they passed on the way to Heather's car. They were quiet as Heather drove the short distance to the station, and on their way to Cybil's office, only shot out select greetings.

She opened the door for them, and gave them a worried once over as they sat. Heather figured it was part worry over sending officers out into the field on an unknown mission, but also because of where she was sending them. “Are you two ready? You've slept, eaten...you're ready?" Heather and Douglas both nodded, and Cybil sat on the edge of her desk, some tension easing from her shoulders. "Okay...good. Now, Cheryl, why aren’t you wearing the police issue Kevlar vest? And Douglas, what’s with the coat and hat? They look like they’ve seen better days.”

“Well,” they both started, and Douglas waved for Heather to continue.

“This vest got me through Silent Hill the first time, so I’m using it for good luck. I did bring other one with me, if you really want me to change. And everything else? Well, I can't be to careful.” Heather said, reaching up and tugging on the straps of the vest. She was going to put her puffy vest over top, once she got outside.

“I wore this ensemble the last two times I was there, so I feel that it’s fitting that I wear it this time as well. Maybe it'll get me out of there alive for a third time too.” Douglas said, holding the old and worn hat in his hands. 

Cybil sighed, not bothering to fight. “Ok...okay. That's fine; Heather, you don't have to change. If you have your reasons, then I won't fight it. Now, are we just waiting on the others?”

Right as Cybil finished asking her question and turned towards the wall clock, Rebecca knocked on the door, poking her head inside.

“Sorry about that...Chris and Barry just wanted to check the SUVs again. Are you two ready to go?”

“Yeah.” Heather and Douglas both nodded to Cybil, who rose and shook Douglas’ hand before pulling Heather into an awkward one-armed hug. before following after Rebecca. They found her out in the parking lot, where the others were waiting around a pair of black, military issue SUVs. 

“So, are you two really ready for this?” Barry asked as Jill and Chris started to loaded their gear into one of the vehicles.

“I think we’re both as ready as we could be for another trip to that town.” Heather said with a shrug. "So...who's leading?" she asked.

“I’ll do that,” Douglas headed off any complaints swiftly. “I know the best ways there, and I’ve been there more times than any of you. This was we won't get lost or take any unnecessary detours.”

“Fine.” Chris gave Douglas a scrutinizing look before handing over the keys to one of the SUV's. “This is a rental. Don’t make us lose our deposit- these vehicles are expensive.”

The group all chuckled, before splitting into two groups. Douglas, Heather, Rebecca, and Claire were going in the one, and Jill, Chris, and Barry in the other. Losing the rock-paper-scissors battle for the passengers seat, Heather smiled as she slid into the back seat, against the window.

They drove for about half an hour, before stopping at the last gas station and convenience store located before Silent Hill. As Douglas filled up his SUV, which hadn't been topped off before leaving Brahms, everyone else went inside, to stock up on goods and to use the facilities.

“Good afternoon! Where are you folks headed?” The attendant asked, looking down at his magazine.

“Silent Hill.” Rebecca said, grabbing a few packets of gum, and as an after thought, a roadside first aid kit.

The attendant's head shot up, pale. “S-Silent Hill? Why not Ashfield or Shepherds Glen? I've hear they're much nicer...” he said, trying to deter them.

Heather turned to him. “We're headed there for police business, so vacation spots aren't really on our radar. How much for pump 2?”

After paying and leaving the gas station and its startled attendant behind, they all set into a routine. In Douglas' vehicle, Heather, Rebecca, and Claire made idle chit-chat, while in Chris', Him, Barry, and Jill spoke quietly, going over their plan of action again. It was about an hour later when they started seeing signs for Silent Hill.

“ ‘Silent HEll’. How imaginative. I assume we’re almost there, then?” Jill asked, tapping her ear piece, asking Douglas.

“Yeah. We have about 20-30 more minutes in here before we get there.” he replied.

Everyone faded back into silence, unlike Jill noticed the sound of someone coming up behind them.

“Is that a motorcycle?” she asked, twisting in her seat.

“Yeah, it sounds like it..." Chris said, frowning. "Douglas, you said this road leads exclusively to Silent Hill, right? So then who's heading into town?”

"No idea. Let them pass, and maybe we'll be able to tell. Could be a cop from Ashfield or something..." Douglas said, and Heather turned to look out her window.

As the noise got louder, everyone, minus the drivers, craned the necks, trying to get a good look at the rider.

"They passed Chris," Heather said as the motorcyclist approached, and Douglas nodded. After several moments, the rider moved up next to the SUV, slowing enough to wave at Douglas, before speeding up and disappearing around a bend in the road.

Douglas swore at the sight of the rider, and hit his hand on the edge of the steering wheel. "God damn it Cybil! What are you doing?"

"Cybil...The police chief? Why would she be coming out here?" Jill asked, having left the communication system open.

"She's been to Silent Hill before. Maybe she changed her mind and decided to come with us?" Heather suggested, knowing it was a weak idea. "Really, I have no clue. She's supposed to be back home..."

As they rounded corners, along the highway, Claire called out for Douglas to stop.

"Guys! Look, isn't that...?" She pointed out the window at a motorcycle crashed on the side of the road. "It looks like the one we saw in the stations parking lot...Do you think maybe she crashed?"

Heather and Douglas tried to ignore the grim comment as Douglas pulled over, stopping the cars, and everyone piled out of the vehicles to look at the bike.

"It doesn't look like she ran into anything...There don't seem to be any dents caused by a collision, just scraping from hitting the ground and sliding." Chris said as he and Barry flipped the bike upright, leaning it against the mountain side.

"It looks like she lost control not long after she pulled past us...So why didn't we see anything?" Rebecca looked worried. "And what if she's injured? Where did she go?"

"...This seems very familiar..." Heather looked down at the tire tracks, talking to herself. "I think we'll find her in Silent Hill..."

Jill heard her, however. "Why do you say that?" she asked.

Heather quickly backtracked. "W-well...mostly because we're so close to town, and if she crashed, then it only makes sense for her to be there? And, well, this is a little silly, but..." She paused, before just saying what was on her mind. "The best way to say this, really, is that that town...steals people. People will crash or go missing right outside of town, and..." Heather stopped talking, shooting an unhappy look at the dented bike.

"The town? No, she probably just headed for help after crashing." Chris said, giving Heather an odd look. "What should we do with the bike? I don't think there's any harm leaving it here, it's out of traffic, but..."

"I'd say to take it with us, but I'm sure it won't fit." Douglas asked, "It'd be a shame to leave this here though. She loves this bike."

"Well, maybe on the way out we can get it. Anything else we need to do while we're stopped?" Chris asked, and everyone shook their heads. "Okay, lets get going. I'm sure the chief is okay."

Everyone clamored back into the SUV's, and then rest of the ride into town, everyone was occupied with Cybil's crash and disappearance.

"So, any theories as to how and why the Chief crashed? I doubt it was because of speed, and it's clear today, no weather conditions that could have caused her to lose control. And I doubt she was drinking or consuming any drugs...So what could have caused her to crash?" Chris asked, hoping that someone in the vehicles could figure out an acceptable reason.

"She could have simply be distracted. Silent Hill isn't exactly a place anyone seems to want to go, so the thought might have been enough to make her lose her concentration. Or she could have come across some wild animals which caused her to swerve and crash." Jill offered.

"That's a possibility. She wasn't even supposed to be coming, so maybe she was feeling conflicted about leaving her precinct and coming to town? Well, I guess why she crashed doesn't change the fact that she's missing. Can you guys see anything out your windows that'd suggest she was on this road?" Barry asked, and everyone turned their attentions to the side of the road, looking for anything. Douglas and Chris were both driving slower, just in case they came across Cybil, injured on the side of the road, and after a moment, everyone replied negative. There's was nothing but a broken guard rail, but Heather doubted that Cybil had managed to break that.

Heather stayed silent, not bothering to offer up any ideas as to why Cybil crashed, and instead pulled a book out of her backpack. After safely escaping the town, her father, Harry, had written a book about what had happened to him. After her time in Silent Hill, Heather knew that the books was essentially a guide to what had happened to him. In the beginning, Cybil's character has also crashed, but was fine when found by Harry's character.

Heather had read it a couple times, but hadn't touched it since Harry's death. She was too scared to see what he'd written about Cheryl, about Alessa. She didn't like the idea that she had taken them both away, in a way. And Heather knew how losing Cheryl had hurt her father.

"Wow. I've never seen that copy of that book. Where did you get it?" Twenty pages into the story, Claire looked over and recognized Heather's reading material. "I wish he'd come out with another book, a sequel to that one or something. I mean, I've tried his other stuff, but his mystery and crime books have nothing on The Unsettling Depression. A friend gave me my copy as a joke, and it's definitely one of my favourites now."

"Yeah, it would be pretty awesome to get a sequel out. I mean, it's left so open ended...It's just too bad it has such a crappy name." Heather said, trying to keep a cheerful tone. Talking or hearing about Harry still upset her. "But, didn't you hear?" She was getting to the part where "Henry" crashed his car, and she wanted to get to the page where it described "Cynthia" showing up.

"Hear what? Did something happen?" Claire looked disappointed with Heather's nod. "That really bites! What happened?"

"It was on the news a while back, but I guess he was shot and killed in a home invasion or something. They didn't say a lot about it though...And I don't know if they caught whoever did it. It's a shame...Harry Morris was a great author." Heather said, not at all ashamed to talk him up. If only more people would read the book, recognize it as Silent Hill...

"Harry Morris was killed..." Claire shook her head. "Man, you'd think I would have heard that. I'll have to mention it on that message board..." Heather tuned out Claire's voice as she continued reading, starting to feel the edge of a poor mood, brought on by the memory of her father's death. She'd have to control it though...she couldn't be grumpy in Silent Hill after all.

"Well, here we are. The lovely tourist town of Silent Hill. To your right you'll see the beautiful and morbid Toluca Lake, and to your left you'll see a bunch of trees, hopefully not containing any rifle-wielding conspiracy theorists." Douglas seemed to be in a better mood considering what happened to Cybil, and even Chris laughed into his headset.

"Great. I can't wait to stretch my legs and question some locals. Hopefully ones without guns." Barry said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I can't wait to get out of this car. I'm not a big fan of road trips. I need to be moving!" Jill said, and Heather could hear the grin on her face.

"Even after our break back there? Well, it looks like you get your chance right away. The road is blocked off ahead... We're going to have to walk into town." Everyone sobered up at Douglas' declaration.

"Blocked off? Oh wow...and not even something we can move out of the way." Claire looked out the windshield, over Douglas' shoulder, before unbuckling herself as the vehicle slowed to a stop. "There's absolutely no way to drive around it?"

"Nope. We'll just have to see if we can find a way in on foot. It is big though...I wonder what sort of construction they're doing here that would have them blocking off the entire road. It'd have to be pretty major...Maybe there's been a landslide?" Their good moods disappeared as Douglas and Chris pulled into a rest stop's parking lot. Douglas parked between a white van and a white car with its door open, and Chris parked on the other side of the white car.

"Well, that's one car battery drained and one car pillaged. Who'd be stupid enough to leave their cars here like this?" Claire asked as she climbed out of the SUV, shaking her head as she walked over and slammed the door of the offending car.

"'Careful Claire,'" Rebecca said as she stretched. "You never know who owned that car. They could be an axe murderer or a zombie!" She stuck her tongue out.

"Becca, that's not funny! Now I'm going to be thinking of zombie axe-murderers coming to get me for slamming doors shut!" Turning away from where Claire and Rebecca were fooling around, Heather pulled her gear out of the car and took it over to a concrete barrier. First strapping on her sword on again, she then started to check her gear. Once she was sure that all her weapons were loaded, that the spare clothing was put away in the bottom, that her first aid supplies weren't crushed, Heather pulled out her book and started reading again. Everyone else was doing that or rushing into the dingy looking road-side washrooms. 

After everyone had used the facilities, which were hellish in their own right, they started looking for an alternate path into town.

"This blockade has a door for some reason...and it's locked." Barry pulled halfheartedly at the handle. "Want me to try and bust it open?" 

They all looked at the wall blocking their path, a little weary. "I don't know...I don't really feel like going for a romp around in a blocked off tunnel around here. It's probably locked for a reason, maybe part of it collapsed? Why don't we keep looking?" Surprisingly, it was Jill that spoke up. Heather had thought that the woman wasn't the type to get nervous, but it appeared that she wasn't all that keen on entering a possible death trap.

"Ok then, we'll keep looking. What if-" Chris started to say something else, when Claire called out.

"Hey! Why don't we try the path by the cars? It looks like it goes down towards that lake, but it's worth a try?"

"Is that our only option?" Douglas walked over and peered down the path. "I mean, I'm all for trying it, but what if it leads to a dead end?"

"I can't see any other option except maybe to get back in the cars and go a different way, so we might as while give it a try." Heather adjusted her backpack straps, and at Chris's nod, began walking down the path ahead of everyone.

"So...where do you think this leads to?" Rebecca asks.

"Probably the lake. That would explain the fog, and you can see it's just over there." Claire replies, pointing through the trees. 

"I mean where do you think the path ends, but that's make sense. There's probably a look-out or something. Probably with a picnic table." Rebecca sighed, and shivered slightly. Heather didn't blame her. The fog was cold!

The group continued on the path, only briefly stopping once to look into an seemingly abandoned well that Claire and Rebecca jokingly tossed several coins into for "good luck", before they came upon a gate.

"Oh, great. It goes not to the lake, but to the graveyard," Jill looked disgusted, seeing headstones over the short gate. "Here's hoping there aren't any open graves in this one..."

"...You go into a lot of graveyards with open graves? Fall in any yet?" Douglas joked trying to lighten the mood as Barry strong armed the rusted gate open.

"Yes, actually. Zombies don't tend to fill in their graves after leaving them." Jill said, and Claire nodded. "Yep. And they you have to climb out and that's even less fun." She said as they picked their way through the overgrown grounds.

"Oh...Well, let's try and stay away from any holes then." Douglas said with a quiet laugh, but now keeping an eye on where he was walking.

They continued on in silence again, only stopping so Barry could again open the gate on the other side of the cemetery.

"Ugh. I'm glad to get out of there. There's just something about places like that that just give me the creeps. Like the people are still there watching us...Or they're ready to climb out and give chase." Claire made a face as she shivered.

"They could be, you know. Silent Hill was said to be built on a...well, I guess the best way to put it is that it was built on a "sacred place" according to what was once the local tribes." Heather said as they continued down the road. "There's tones of ghost stories. People being led into the lake, mostly."

" "Sacred Place"? "Local tribes"? You're just trying to freak me out and succeeding!" Claire looked even more freaked out, but the rest of the group appeared to be more amused by her discomfort and Heather's explanation. "I hate ghost stories!"

"It probably means that this place was revered...or that it was avoided like the plague. And the local tribe thing? There used to be two big tribes in the area, but the members either died or left the area. They have some books on the tribes and their legends in the library back in Brahmas, and I borrowed them before we came out here," Rebecca said, before pausing. "Wait, what's that noise? Is that a...chainsaw?" Everyone hurried up the small hill, looking for the source of the noise. Seeing it, Douglas rushed over to the chainsaw that was steadily running out of log to saw through.

"Jesus! Don't people know how big a hazard this is, just leaving this here to run? Especially since they had to jerryrig the shut off switch..." he muttered, dropping the chainsaw on the stump.

"I don't know...But that means there's probably someone around here then, right? We could try and ask about what's been going on?" Heather asked as she took a look at the the chainsaw. She'd love to take it with her, but it was almost out of gas and even if it had gas, it was a pretty impractical weapon.

"Right. Let's see if anyone’s around." Chris and Jill looked over the van that was parked on the side of the path, as Douglas and Barry poked around in the underbrush and around the fence. Rebecca and Heather looked on the other side of the path but they were all unable to find anything, other than the van and chainsaw, that suggested that there was an unknown in the vicinity.

"Well, that was not very useful. Oh well, shall we?" Claire said with a sigh, and the others nodded. 

"Yeah. I want to get into to Silent Hill proper sometime today," Chris groused, and Clair just stuck her tongue out at him.

The group continued up the path, walking at a steady pace (excluding the interval when Claire heard a strange noise, and they broke into a swift jog) until they reached the street. It was foggy, and Heather could barely see a thing even though it was only around 2 PM. Or she assumed it was 2. She turned to the others, and asked one very important question as soon as she had their attention.

"So, which one of you guys has the map?"


	4. Chapter 4

At Heather's question, Barry swore softly and Jill sighed, sounding distressed.

“Wait...so you don't have the maps then...?" Rebecca asked slowly, before reaching into her bag and rummaging around. "I don't think I grabbed that print out..."

“What? We weren't supposed to grab the maps, that was your job...right? I swore Cybil told us that maps weren't going to be an issue." Heather replied, tensing. If they were going to blame them for not bringing the maps along, she wasn't sure how they were going to work together enough to get to the cafe and to Cybil.

Douglas interjected, holding up a hand. ”Okay, so we don't have any maps. Me and Heather have both been here before, so it shouldn't be an issue at all. We just have to figure out exactly where we are..." He trailed off, peering into the fog.

Claire looked nervous, the fog swirling between them. "So...you mean that you have no idea where we are now, but you will eventually."

“Well, yes. I just have to look at a street sign, and I'll know exactly where we are. Probably...” Heather trailed off as they walked into town. She was sure that as long as she had a general idea of where they were, everything would work out. “When do you think Umbrella started out in Silent Hill, Rebecca? If we know the date and time we can tell if they expanded into Old Silent Hill or New Silent Hill.” Heather was anxious to get to the diner Cybil had appeared in when she first came to Silent Hill, but she knew she couldn't tell the others. There was no way they'd believe her.

“Well, let's see...If I'm remembering correctly, Umbrella is said to have to expanded into Silent Hill in 1984, right?” Rebecca turned to Chris for confirmation, and he nodded. “I couldn’t really see a definite date- all the numbers I found contradicted each other- but 1984 was the one date that came up the most.”

“Okay then..." Heather said to herself, thinking out loud. "Okay, so then it's more likely that the facility is in Old Silent Hill, right? I mean, New Silent Hill wasn’t really around then. Let's see...I think it was about 12 years ago when they started building it? It wasn’t here when my dad came, but it was when Douglas came looking for his missing person, right?” She turned to Douglas, and he nodded to her.

“Right. And even then it was fairly new section of the town. So, I guess that means that we should head towards Old Silent Hill then?” he asked the group generally, and Heather nodded, before she stepped out onto the street. She needed to find a street sign so she knew exactly where they were and what way to go.

Chris grabbed her arm though, and pulled her back. “Are you crazy?! We have to be careful here! What if something happened to you? We’d be stuck here.” 

“I’ve been here before and survived. So has Douglas. What is he then, chopped liver? Besides, we aren’t going to get anywhere if we just stand around. “

Heather was starting to get antsy. All the weirdness in Silent Hill should have popped out and started harassing them all ready. 

“Fine. But we’ll go first. Because if you get hurt…”Chris trailed off as he stepped into the street.

Heather just rolled her eyes at Douglas and smiled. It seemed like these people were the type to take charge and move in slowly. Not like her or Douglas at all. This was going to be an interesting time, clashing against each other’s ideas on how to move.

As Douglas and she met the others on the sidewalk, Jill turned to her. “Do you know where we are now?”

Heather looked around. “Hmmm…defiantly New Silent Hill. Neely’s Bar is over there, so that’s how I know. I think we have to go that way,” she pointed down a side street, ”to get to Old Silent Hill. It should take about twenty minutes to get there though. Longer if there are any…detours.”

“Detours?” Claire asked, clearly unnerved by the feel of the town.

“Oh, you know, the road falling to pieces, big cliffs, big walled off sections that shouldn’t be there, piles of cars. That sort of thing.” They all turned to Douglas, unsure if they should really believe him.

“Are you serious? Really?” Rebecca gaped at Douglas. “The road just disappeared? That would imply a structural weakness beneath the town. Is it built on top of some sort of empty reservoir?”

Heather shook her head. “You haven’t even heard the weird bit yet. The roads that disintegrated into nothing end up coming back! The second time we came here all the exits were blocked. But when we were finished, we were able to leave. There were no more barricades or anything! A little creepy though…”

“But that’s impossible! How…?” Claire shook her head. “If the road crumbles and disappears then it shouldn’t be able to come back!”

“Well, here it does. Do you think this has anything to do with Umbrella?” Heather thought that letting the other believe that Umbrella was responsible for what was going on in the town was good for the time being. She didn’t think that they would accept the ghost of Alyssa’s memories was causing all the weird things.

“Well, that doesn’t really matter now. We have to get to Old Silent Hill and find out what Umbrella is doing. We can talk about impossibilities of this town later.” Jill walked a little ways up the street. “God…This fog is fucking thick. Can you guys even see me anymore?”

“We can, but you shouldn’t go too far away. We don’t want to lose you.” Chris called, peering into the fog. 

“Yeah…We don’t want the town taking you too.”

Everyone turned to Heather. Well, everyone who hadn’t experienced Silent Hill before turned to her. Douglas just chuckled.

“You really believe that the town will take people huh?” Jill walked out of the fog and shook her head. “Anyway, I didn’t see any people around. This remind anyone of anything?”

Chris and Barry grew more guarded, and Claire and Rebecca began looking a bit more nervous, but Heather and Douglas relaxed slightly. If Jill didn’t see any one, that meant that maybe the monsters and hell beasts were holding back for now.

“Careful now. Jill said the way was clear, but the way this town feels…Everyone should be on high alert. Cheryl, you know where we need to go?” Heather nodded. “Good. Let’s move out then people. We don’t want to be caught here in the dark.” Chris motioned with his hand for Heather to go first.

“I think we can all agree with that. Although, if we do get stuck here I know a good hotel. I don’t think I ever returned the key for our room after the last visit. We could always stop there.” Douglas provided, hanging in the back with Rebecca and Claire.

“We’ll keep that in mind, although I hope to be in Old Silent Hill before we need a hotel room.” Barry commented, keeping a close look at the other side of the road.

“So, Cheryl.” Jill had been watching Heather since they’d reached the town, and she could tell that the younger woman had her hackles up. 

“Yes?” Heather was only half paying attention. Just because Jill hadn’t seen anything didn’t mean that the freak show that is Silent Hill wasn’t about to start.

“What up with your outfit? I mean, ok, I get the casual clothing and the bullet-proof vest, but a sword? Isn’t that a bit, you know, odd?”

Heather internally smiled. She couldn’t believe that it had taken so long for them to notice it. “I feel more comfortable with it on. Call me paranoid, but…”

Jill nodded, seeming to take her answer. “Ok, I know what you mean. I carry my lock picks with me everywhere, even when I don’t need to…But, I mean, you just look so…Ready I suppose. I mean, ok the flashlight is looking pretty cheap and beat up, and I have no clue why you have that broken radio, I mean, can you hear the static coming from that thing?”  
Heather stopped. “Static? You can hear….” She pulled the radio out and held it to her ear. Nothing.

“I heard static. Back when we stopped to look at the Chief’s crashed bike. Why? What’s wrong?”

Heather shook her head and resumed walking. She didn’t put the radio back in her pocket though. She just looped the strap around her hand. “Nothing! Just….Nothing.”

Douglas was the only one who noticed something was wrong, and came over to walk with her after Jill fell back to chat with Barry and Claire. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Jill said she’d heard static when we were looking at Cybil’s bike.”

Douglas looked rightfully worried. “Shit. Do you think?”

“Yeah. Something was watching us. Something not human.” Heather strode ahead, now listening keenly for any static, as well as looking for the turn they’d have to make.

“Should we…You know, tell them?” Douglas walked closer to her, not wanting the others to overhear their conversation.

“No. Hopefully we won’t have to…Oh crap.” Heather stopped, holding up a hand to warn the others that they’d have to stop as well.

“What is it?” Barry asked, bringing up the rear. 

“Holy…That is a big hole.” Jill crouched down, peering over the edge.

“When you said detours, I didn’t think…I thought smaller sized obstructions. This is just…” Everyone crowded around, staring into the hole that had opened up in the middle of the street. 

“Well, I guess we have no option but to find a way around this. Anyone see a clue as to where we should go? A blood trail or strange noises or opened doors?” Everyone turned to Heather, and she internally winced. “Ok, maybe not blood trails, but anyone see anything?” 

Claire gave Heather a weird look. “Blood trails? Really Cheryl, it’s not like Silent Hill is home to serial killers and cultists or anything.”

Rebecca then piped up. “Actually, a notorious serial killer by the name of Walter Sullivan was raised by what was believed to be a cult operating in and around an orphanage right on the outskirts of the town. Apparently the cult also had a hold on the town. Strangely though most of the cult leaders died or disappeared, leading it to disband, excluding the more extremist members who have either gone the way of the leaders or stayed in town, running various parts of the city.” 

Claire paled. “Not helping there ‘Becca.”

“Well, I can’t really help it if the town has an interesting back-story! I haven’t even started going into the murders, deaths, missing peoples, and that freaky house fire I read about! This place is fascinating.”

“That’s nice Rebecca, but we don’t want to be even more freaked out when we face…well, when we face whatever we face. Let’s just try and concentrate on getting around this…Is there a way? Or are we going to have to start breaking down doors?” Everybody began looking for open doors, holes in walls, and in Heather and Douglas’s case, trails of blood.

It took a good twenty minutes before Barry called out that he’d found a grocery store with open doors. “Even if there isn’t an unlocked back door we’ll still be able to stock up on some food!” He joked, looking cautiously into the empty, deserted store. “Should we go in?”

The Raccoon City group debated the pros and cons, and hadn’t even noticed that Douglas had go into the store until he stuck his head out and yelled that the way was clear, there was some food and drinks that were still good, and that the backdoor was unlocked.

“What the hell are you doing Douglas? Didn’t you hear what Chris said to Cheryl? What happens if you end up disappearing?” Jill seemed concerned for Douglas and stood with her arms crossed as he re-joined the group.

“I think Douglas will be ok…I don’t think anything here would dare mess with him.” Heather joked before turning to Chris. “So, can we go in? I mean, Douglas said it was ok, and I’m inclined to trust him, so…?”

Chris frowned, obviously not all that happy with Douglas disappearing into the store. “Yeah. You did a thorough check, right Douglas? Don’t really feel like being jumped by something you missed in there.”

Heather rolled her eyes as Douglas nodded, but waited for someone else to enter the store before her. It wasn’t that she was paranoid or anything, but she was getting the feeling that ever since entering the town she’d done nothing but irritate the others. 

As she stepped into the store, Claire walked over to her. “Sorry about my brother. He can be a dick sometimes.” Heather smiled as Chris looked over, a look of annoyance and brotherly irritation on his face.

“Oh? And yet you are perfectly normal and pleasant?” Heather smiled as she scrounged through the shelves, listening to the Redfield siblings squabble.

Eventually they all moved to the exit. Heather shoved a pack of chips and several water bottles into her rapidly filling backpack and climbed over a knocked over shelf to re-join the others. “So, we heading out now? Or does anyone need to look some more?”

“Yeah, We’re finished here. And, since you guys seem to keep ignoring my advice and I figured that you know the town best, we’ll do things your way. Just try not to get killed, ok?” Chris held the door open as everyone filed through out into the alley. “So, which way do we go now?”

“Hmmmm…Well, I think we need to get out of this alleyway first. To the left!” Everyone followed Heather out onto the street, where she turned several times to get a better bearing of where they were. 

“Ok…We are about….Oh man.” She stopped and rubbed her face with her hand. “We are really close to Old Silent Hill. I guess I thought that we were deeper into New Silent Hill. We need to go straight, then turn right, then left, then we have to follow the road straight into Old Silent Hill.”

“…That sound simple enough. Straight, right, left, straight.” Everyone started moving and Heather could have smiled. If only this wasn’t Silent Hill…Maybe Heather could have enjoyed this if she wasn’t wandering around this hell town.

Everyone walked in relative silence, speaking very little. Heather had her head cocked to better listen for static, and Douglas walked beside her, staring out into the fog.

It wasn’t until they reached the bridge that Heather heard something on her radio.

Rather, everyone in the States heard something on her radio. 

“GOOD GOD! SHUT THAT THING OFF!” Chris yelled, holding his hands over his ears as it screeched.

Heather paled, staring at nothing, before running to the edge of the bridge and looking over. Douglas ran to the opposite side and started looking as well.

Douglas flinched away from the side he was looking over, and Heather ran over and paled even more, if such a thing was possible. A large shadow was moving under the water, heading in the direction of the lake. Everyone else moved to look as well, but Barry was the only one to see a glimpse of the monster before it disappeared from sight.

The static faded, and Barry turned to Douglas, pale and worried. “What the hell was that? I’ve never seen a fish that big in a stream like this. It’s too big….”

“I didn’t see anything Barry. You might have been seeing things in the fog.” Chris interrupted, skeptical. “And what was up with your radio? Is it broken? And why didn’t you turn it off?”

“…” Douglas decided to answer Barry instead of Chris. “I have no clue what that was…I’ve never seen anything that big before in my life.”

Heather answered Chris. “Nothing is wrong with my radio. It just doesn’t work. Also, it was off. So I couldn’t re-turn it off.” She stared him down, starting to feel a little annoyed with how he was acting.

“So that works despite being off and broken? Why don’t you get rid of it then?” Claire asked, bumping into her brother, making him break his glare.

“…” Heather didn’t know how to answer Claire’s question. Thankfully Jill interrupted, so Heather didn’t have to.

“Come on. If there was really something in the water we should get moving. It could be an Umbrella monstrosity, and I want to get closer to the facility before we get swamped with…adversaries.”

Heather exchanged looks with Douglas as they started moving again. “What do you think that was? I’ve never…well, I’ve never seen anything that big other than the “god” I fought and killed. Something that big though…Well, if we do fight it hopefully it’s more than one of us doing it.”

“I agree. Now, why so insistent on getting into Old Silent Hill? I mean, yeah the Umbrella facility is probably there, but do we really need to head there right away?” Douglas was speaking quietly, but no one but Heather was paying attention to him. From what Heather could see the others were embroiled in a conversation of their own.

“I think Cybil will be there. You know how my Dad wrote a book based on when he was here?” Douglas nodded. “Yeah, well, in it he said that Cybil was in a diner in Old Silent Hill. I’m hoping she’s there this time as well.”

“Do you really think she’ll be there though? Did you say that Jill had heard static when we were looking at her bike? I hate to be negative, but….”

Heather hummed to herself. “I think…I think she’ll be there. Just a feeling in my stomach, but…I hope she’s there. Cybil’s almost a mother figure to me, and I know for sure that the department would become a wreck if she wasn’t around to whip them into shape anymore.”

Douglas started to reply when Rebecca called to them from ahead. “HEY! Are you guys coming? What are you doing back there? Gossiping about us?”

Heather grinned widely, and nudged Douglas with her elbow. “Oh yeah. You know us, laughing at Chris’s hair, wondering what you would all look like in tutus. The usual things.”

“What’s wrong with my hair?” Chris was trying to look indignant, but Claire ruined it, jumping on his back and pushing it all forwards so it stood up.

Barry shook his head and Jill covered up her laughter. “I think we’re in Old Silent Hill now. So where to next?”


	5. Chapter 5

Heather stared into the fog. “We should get onto the main street, then move towards the records office. We should probably look for any people still around. I mean, we didn’t see any in New Silent Hill, but who’s to say that there aren’t any people besides us?”

“Good idea. If we see any signs of people, lights, silhouettes, whatever, then we should investigate. Quiet, careful investigation though. We don’t want anyone getting hurt by jumpy people or whatever we find.” Chris nodded and everyone started moving towards the school.

“…That is one old school bus. Do they even use those cheese wagons anymore?” Claire stared as they walked past the school.

“I think so. In smaller towns and cities they still use them… Aw shit. Another hole….Ok, let’s fan out and look for a way around this.” Jill motioned with her hand as she started trying back gates. “Maybe we can go through someone’s back yard?”

Heather frowned. They had moved through New Silent Hill into Old Silent Hill already and they’d only found two craters in the road. That was odd, and it made her worried. And worried Heather was paranoid Heather.

“What’s wrong?” Rebecca walked over to Heather who was glaring at the cliff. “Are you ok, Cheryl?”

“….I’m fine.” Heather replied, pulling her gaze from the hole and walking over to a gate she knew would open.

“I’ve tried that one already, Cheryl!” Barry called out. “I think we’re going to have to go back and find another way.”

Heather shook her head. “Are you sure Barry? ‘Cause there’s a key for the lock right there.” She pointed to where a key was hanging on a string, tied to a nail on the side of the garage. “Shall we try it?”

Barry shook his head. “I can’t believe I missed that. Although that blends in really well. You’ve got good eyes.”

Heather smiled softly. She was just lucky. She briefly remembered the owner of the house, her old teacher, K. Gorden, telling her that the key was there and that she could use it if she needed to when she was Alyssa. It was weird recalling memories from her ‘other selves’. It was super disorientating.

As Barry went and called the others over, Heather pulled the key down. As she grabbed it, she noticed something else. There was a note taped next to the nail. She hastily grabbed the note and stuffed it into her fanny pack as the others approached. She’d read it when she got some time alone. Maybe when they stopped for the night, or when they left, if they hurried.

“Good job Cheryl. I was almost worried that we’d have to find another way.” Heather silently handed Chris the gate key and let him take the lead.

They all entered the small back yard, and Heather and Douglas both smiled. Douglas briskly strode forward and gathered up the shotgun shells on the ground and Heather picked up the three health drinks that were sitting on the outdoor table

“What are you guys doing? What is that Cheryl?” Claire was handed a health drink. “’Uncle Bob’s Premium Health Drink. With Rhubarb and Lemon Juice For Improved Taste.’ Why are you picking up this stuff?”

Heather stopped. Yet another question she couldn’t really answer. “Because….uhm…well, who would leave a thing like this out here? I think I should grab them just in case. Plus I encountered these the last time we were here and they came in handy…”

Everyone except Douglas gave her a strange look. “Really? How can a heath drink come in handy? Well, anyway, let’s get moving. It’s getting…nasty looking out. I don’t want to be outside here if it decides to start raining.”

Everyone nodded and headed to see if there was a way from the back to the front yard. Unfortunately there was no way, making going through the house the only option.  
“What are we going to do if the doors locked?” Rebecca asked before Chris tried the knob.

“…We’ll knock loudly. If no one answers then I think I’ll break in. We can always apologize later.” Chris gave the knob a wrench, but it didn’t turn. “Knocking loudly it is then.”

Chris banged loudly against the door, yelling out that they just wanted to go through the house for the benefit of the non-existent people. After waiting around fifteen minutes, in which Rebecca and Claire looked around for the house key that might have been hidden outside like the gate key and Heather sulked at the thought that the super helpful heath drinks were silly to pick up, Chris smashed in the window with a decorative garden rock and unlocked the door.

“Watch out for the glass, ok?” Jill said, stepping over the shards. “I’m going to look for a broom to push these out of the way. Wait a bit, ok?”

Everyone waited for Jill to come back with a broom and sweep the mess out of the way. Once Jill had deemed it safe for the rest of them to enter the house without a chance of impaling their feet on a shard of glass, they entered. 

It was a simple kitchen, and as far as Heather/Alyssa knew, Mr. Gordon wasn’t married. She’d never used the key when he first told her of it, but she was glad she still remembered. As everyone started looking through the kitchen, Heather headed straight to the closets then front door. She appreciated a good look around as much as anyone, but this time she was focused on finding Cybil before anything else. 

She opened the first hall closet and stared. A hunting rifle and ammunition were sitting inside, almost like they were waiting for someone to come and get them. Heather motioned Douglas over and pointed out the gun.

“Do you think we should take this?” Heather asked.

“I think so. You want me to hold onto it then?” Douglas picked up the rifle. “This is a beautiful gun. Someone took really good care of it.”

“…Yeah. It is. I’d take it but I just don’t have the room right now.” Heather turned to the other closet and opened it as Douglas gathered up the ammunition. The second closet had several coats and a small hatchet. Heather grabbed the hatchet and one of the coats, a bright orange rain slicker. 

Heather tried the door and it swung it open easily. “Hey! Guys! We can go through here on to the main street. Do we wanna get going now?”

Heather stood by the door as everyone trundled out, and shut it behind her before falling in to step with Chris. “Did you find anything good in the kitchen?”

Chris grunted. “Not really. Couple of cans of Tab and two more of those Health Drinks, but nothing useful. You?”

“Just some jackets and a hatchet. Oh, and Douglas got a hunting rifle that was in one of the closets.” They all turned onto the main street, and Heather sighed, ignoring the looks she was getting for so casually mentioning the rifle. ‘One step closer to finding Cybil. Now if everyone would just move to the right place instead of loitering on the street, looking into peoples windows. ‘ 

As they grew closer to the café, Claire commented on the lights coming from up above.

“Those are some bright lights. What’s up there? Do you know what store is up ahead?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe a café or restaurant?”

“Somewhere with a phone or TV or current newspaper maybe?”

Heather wasn’t paying attention to who was speaking. She just started moving at a brisker pace to try and get there first. 

“Remember what I said people! Let’s be careful. We don’t want any misunderstandings or accidents.” Chris called ahead as Heather, Rebecca, and Barry drew closer.

“Yeah yeah! Don’t worry, we won’t startle anyone on purpose!” Claire called as she jogged up to join Rebecca.

Heather ignored Chris though. They were almost there and if Cybil wasn’t there, Heather wasn’t going to be very happy. She got to the café first, but waited for the others to catch up. Heather looked through the window and could make out a humanoid shape inside. 

Barry was the next person to reach Heather and the café, and Heather turned to him. “It looks like there’s someone in there, so I figured I’d wait for the rest of you guys.” She smiled thinly.

“Good idea. Then if we’re attacked then it’s all of us and we can help, not just you.” Barry motioned for everyone else to hurry up.

“What is it?” Jill asked.

“It’s unknown. It looks human, but we never know.” Barry replied. 

Jill looked through the window as well. Thankfully the figure was not facing them, so she wasn’t spotted. “Looks like a female. Are we waiting for the others before approaching?”

“Yeah. And maybe if they’d hurry up….” Heather began waving her arms, trying to get everyone else to hurry and get over there faster.

It took several minutes, because, for some reason, Douglas had stuck his head inside of a video store.

“What were you doing?” Claire asked.

“I thought I saw someone in there…I guess my mind was just playing tricks on me, it was just a cardboard cut-out of Doctor Who. Sorry about that.”

“…Hmm…ok, well, should we go in now?” Rebecca asked.

“Yeah. I wanna ask that person what’s going on here.” Jill pushed open the door as everyone else readied their weapons, just in case they were dealing with someone of…unknown mental state.

The person obviously didn’t hear them enter, and when Jill rested a hand on their shoulder, they flipped out.

“Oh shit! Who!?” They spun around in a panic, and Heather smiled, happy that she was correct and things were turning out somewhat ok.

“Chief Bennet? What are you doing here?” Chris asked as Cybil rested against the counter, a hand pressed to her chest as she tried to calm down after seeing that it was only them. “Last we saw, you were right outside the city. And then we found your crashed bike. What’s going on?”

Cybil was quiet for a moment, before replying. “I don’t know what happened. You guys left, and I know I was supposed to stay to keep those boneheads in line, but I couldn’t let you guys go without me…So I just jumped on my bike and went after you. Well, I did pack some stuff, but probably not enough.”

“But why did you crash? And how did you get here?” Rebecca asked, moving forward. “Are you hurt or anything from the crash? I can try and help….”

“I honestly have no clue why I crashed, or how I got here. And I don’t seem to be hurt or anything. Thank you though.” Cybil pushed away from the counter, and cracked her neck. “Where have you been so far? Looked in anywhere?”

“Just in a house and here so far, Chief. We were looking for the Public Records Office….” Jill replied.

“Well, you guys are in the wrong part of town for the Records Office.” Cybil said. “And call me Cybil, not Chief. It makes me feel old, and we are stuck here together, so rank doesn’t really matter.”

“Oh, ok. Uhm…. Cybil, you didn’t happen to bring any maps with you?” Rebecca asked, shuffling her feet.

“Yes, I have the maps no one brought. How did you guys forget these?” Cybil smiled at them, as they all looked away.

“Er… We all thought someone else was bringing them?” Douglas supplied. “So, where is the Public Records Office then?”

Cybil moved towards the door. “You went over a bridge, right?” Claire nodded. “Yeah, we have to go back over that again. It’s between Alchemilla and the Theater.”

“Alchemilla? What’s that?” Barry asked.

Before Cybil could reply, Heather butted in. “Alchemilla is a hospital. It’s old now. People go to Brookhaven instead.”

“Oh. Thank you Cheryl. So I guess this means we have to head over there then?” Chris asked, motioning to Cybil, “Can we take a look at those maps? It’d probably be easier to go by map rather than by trying to figure out by street signs and guess work.”

As everyone crowded around a table, Cybil pulled out one of the maps and they all began speaking, gesturing and waving around black and red markers, which Cybil had also thought to bring. Heather moved away though, after pointing out where the big craters they’d encountered were, and stood near a broken window, staring out into the fog.   
It was hard for her to think of her father in this mad place, and now that she was back for the second time…Heather shook her head and moved toward the counter. She had seen some things on it when they had entered, and Heather figured that now that everybody was focused on the map she could take a look. 

It wasn’t much, just some ketchup and mustard bottles, an old, rusty kitchen knife, and a notepad. The condiments and kitchen utensil didn’t interest Heather, but she could see writing on the pad. She picked it up, and started to skim it. She stopped after the second sentence and started to really pay attention to the words.

_“It’s only been half an hour since I crashed and Cheryl disappeared. The only person I’ve seen is a lady cop named Cybil and she knew as much as me about this place. This town is strangely eerie. After what I saw in that alley, and that girl in the road….I don’t know what is going on, but Cheryl is missing and I need to find her. I can’t let anything stop me from finding her…”_

Heather finished reading two and a half pages of writing, dimly realising that it was her father who’d written the words, who’d decided to document his experiences. She was still looking at the notebook when Jill called to her.

“Hey, anything interesting over there?”

“No, nothing. Just a kitchen knife and some mustard. Are we ready then?” Heather shoved the notepad inside her jacket and hoped that no one had noticed.

No one had, apparently, as Claire nodded to her. “Yeah. We’ve mapped out several routes, just in case the first one doesn’t work out. I reckon we should hurry, I mean, it’s getting pretty dark out.”

Everyone turned to the windows, and Rebecca frowned. “It’s not even that late….It shouldn’t be getting this dark this soon. I think we should start moving now….”

As they filed out of the café, Douglas, Cybil, and Heather all sent worried looks to each other. If it was getting dark in Silent Hill, that meant something was up, and something was going to happen soon. Heather moved towards the front of the group, keeping pace with Rebecca and Cybil.

“So, do you expect us to run into much trouble on our way over to the public office?” asked Cybil, who was warily scanning around, not even bothering to hid her unease.

“Well,” began Rebecca, “We did deal with two major holes so far. And from what Cheryl and Douglas said, we’ll run into many more. So it’s best to be prepared rather than to be without any alternate plans.”

“True. But doesn’t it worry you, having to make so many back up plans?” They worked their way up the main street, only encountering minor detours, only once having to completely rethink their route, before reaching the bridge. By this time, Cybil, Rebecca, and Heather had moved on to talking of more pleasant things, like work and ‘that guy who always stands around the water cooler talking and you’re not sure if he really works there or if he’s just popped in for the water and food in the canteen’. 

By the time Rebecca and Cybil started talking about sports, with Heather only commenting about how she didn’t understand how it was entertainment, they had reached another major hole. This time, it was a new one.

“This wasn’t here on our way into town. Where exactly are we?” Barry asked, as everyone pulled out their copies of the maps.

“I think…We’re not too far off from the Public Records Office. If we cut through that alley….” Jill pointed towards an entrance not far from Alchemilla. “We’d just have to get over there….”

“Through that alley, then? And then up the street a bit?” Rebecca pointed towards the alley.

“Yeah. That should be where we need to go…” Cybil squinted. “So, are we going to move?”

“Yeah. I think the faster we finish with this shit, the better.” Barry was the first to move, edging along a broken piece of sidewalk to get to the alley. Once everyone else was in the alley, Cybil and Chris took the lead, moving through the rubble and debris that was littered on the ground.

They all tromped along the alley, peeking into an opened backyard before exiting onto the street. The road outside of the hospital and on the main drag was cluttered, cars haphazardly parked and paper flying in the non-existent wind.

“…What happened here? I mean, I know it’s been empty everywhere else we’ve been, but this is…It shouldn’t be this quiet.” Jill started walking, intent on reaching the Public Records Office first.

“Wait up!” Heather jogged up to her. “Is there something wrong?”

Jill shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s just…There’s something about this place, more so than just the fact that there’s no one here. I think I can see why no one wanted to come here with us.”

Heather was silent, letting Jill finish what she had to say. 

“Last I felt this was in Raccoon…It’s just…this feeling that we’re being watched, almost. It just doesn’t feel right.” They reached the end of the alley, and stepped into the street again, abandoned cars and paper flying in the fog.

Everyone was quiet, Heather and Douglas looking and listening for any signs of trouble, as they walked down the middle of the street. As they grew closer to the Public Records Office, they paused to listen to the sounds of something large being scraped across the ground.

“What do you think that was?” Heather heard Claire whisper to Rebecca, who didn’t really have an answer. The sound went away soon, and no one had seen anything that could have made the noise so they just continued. Walking up to the office was easy; other than the hole there was nothing to obstruct their way. 

The door creaked when they opened it, and several people sneezed in the dust, but the office seemed quiet and safe. The S.T.A.R.S went straight to the records on business and companies, while Cybil lingered near the front and Heather and Douglas went to dig around in the files of the cult members.

Heather started with Dahlia Gillespie, for obvious reasons, while Douglas pulled out a file on a guy named Joseph and began flipping through it. Heather had moved on to Claudia Wolfe, and Douglas on to Michael Kauffman when Chris began to swear.

“Something wrong?” Cybil asked calmly, as Heather and Douglas snickered into their files.

“Yeah. They don’t have the files we need here. They have them somewhere in the back I guess.” Jill turned over the file folder for Umbrella Corps., the only thing falling out a gum wrapper and a reference card. “Do you think they’ve got the door locked?”

“I’ll give it a try. Here, can you take these in your pack?” Heather passed the folders she’d amassed to Douglas for safe keeping.

“Yeah. Be careful.” He shoved them into his bag, taking care not to smush them up, or bend the files.

Heather shot a smile over her shoulder. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Cybil and Douglas just stared at her, wondering why Heather was tempting fate, before Cybil replied, “Silent Hill, remember? …Just be careful. And remember now, if anything happens, you brought it on yourself for saying that.” 

Heather chuckled as she yanked at the door to the back, wrenching it open. “See? Nothing here but us dust bunnies.” She stepped into the back area, looking in both directions. “There’s a whole bunch of rooms back here. Is there an archive room number on the reference card?” Everyone piled into the dusty hallway, and Chris read out exactly what was on the card.

“’Reference Card for: UMBRELLA CORPORATION. Complete file to be held in: ARCHIVE 4, BOX 34-8.’ Someone’s added a bit on the bottom too…. Let’s see…” Chris squinted at the spidery handwriting. “’Loraine. We moved the entire file into Archive 4. Apparently the Umbrella people think it’s dangerous or risky to have some of their info out where someone in the public can request to see it. Let Sal know? – Kerry.’” He paused. “So I guess that this means they had some risky stuff around. Maybe bribe stuff? Or something worse?”

“Worse than bribes? In Silent Hill I can think of several things worse than taking bribes….” Heather shook her head. “So, Archive 4. Let’s hope you’re unlocked too….” Heather moved past Barry and Douglas, and checked the door. “Looks like it’s unlocked…Also looks like someone’s been here recently. Look at those foot prints.”

Heather ignored the prints and turned her attention back to the door, and opened it with ease. Then a wave of static from Heather’s radio washed over the group.

“SHIT! Not again! CHERYL! Do you know what’s causing this? Can you see it?” Everyone pressed their hands to their ears. Not Heather though. She stared in horror, the one thing she didn’t want to encounter on their trip standing there, staring at her, although she doubted that it even had eyes. She had let down her guard, let this happen, and she had no one to blame but herself. ‘Perhaps’, she thought, ‘I shouldn’t have tempted fate.’

It shifted slightly, the meager light glinting off of the helmet on its head, and Heather could almost hear the sirens shrieking over the static. She started moving back from the door, dimly hoping that it wouldn’t strike if she stayed calm and quiet and slow.

“Cheryl? What’s wrong?” It was Barry who first noticed Heather backing up. He had to yell, the static sound almost too much for them all to bear.

“…..We…we need to go now.” Heather stopped, not moving her eyes an inch away from the monstrosity that stood before her. Moving too fast would provoke it, and even if she managed to escape it, there was no way everyone would come out of this encounter alive, with them standing in a narrow hall.

This time, Chris objected, taking a step forward. “We can’t go! Cheryl, we need to get into that room. It may have some vital documents that we need! Whatever is in there, we can deal with. This static is just freaking you out.”

Heather started trembling. “I don’t give a flying fuck about those documents! Even if they held the cure for cancer I wouldn’t care. We need to leave now! Before….” She stared at the executioner, not moving in front of her. Heather took a small, careful step sideways, to align herself better, so if she had to make a break for it she could do so without hitting the wall.

“Why do we need to go, Cheryl? What do you see?” Claire made to move forwards, to peer around Heather into the room, but Douglas grabbed her shoulder.

“If Cheryl says there’s a reason for us to get out of here now, I trust her. I think we should listen and leave. But… What is it that’s scaring you so much? You’re usually pretty fearless.” Everyone was starting to get edgy, in part because Heather was so freaked out, and in part because the strange scraping noises they’d heard before had returned.

“…I…It’s the executioner. It’s the remorse and guilt and pain and suffering that people hide from themselves. It’s the reason why people come into Silent Hill and don’t return. It’s a monster and it’s going to kill us all if we don’t move NOW!” It took a step towards her, and Heather spun and ran towards the rest of the group. Or, at least, she tried to.

“….Ahhhh….ghnk” Heather stood there, eyes wide, staring past everyone, into nothing. It had moved faster than she’d expected, and she could feel an almost dull pain spreading across her chest.

“Cheryl? What’s….?!” Barry shouted as she collapsed, dark red rapidly spreading on her chest, blood rapidly pooling underneath her. A blood stained blade scraped across the floor, gathering dust as it moved away from Heather.

Then the thing that the blade belonged to stepped out into view, pulling it’s almost comical looking knife behind it, getting ready for another swing, and then everyone understood why Heather was so keen on leaving. This…thing had taken out Cheryl, taken out Heather, and as it turned from the wall to the group, Douglas knew they were fucked. He didn’t know what it was, but it had taken out one of the most knowledgeable people in their group and that didn’t mean anything good for the rest of them. The weapon it carried scraped on the floor as it took a shuttering step forwards, obviously hindered by the rusted contraption on its head and the size of the hallway.

Cybil then said the one thing everyone was thinking, as it made to step over Heather and come closer to them. 

“We are fucked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed my beautiful 'getting stabbed by Pyramid Head' sounds I created, because I think they are beautiful.


	6. Chapter 6

Once Cybil had spoken, everyone jumped into action. Rebecca, Claire, and Cybil moved behind the others, Cybil taking shots at the monstrosity as Rebecca and Claire tried to make their exit more assessable.

“Shit shit shit shit!” Chris and Jill were shooting into the triangular helmet, while Berry and Douglas took aim at its legs. Cybil aimed for its arms, trying to make it drop its weapon, but it just seemed to be soaking up the bullets.

“We need to get out of here now before this thing takes us out too!” Jill shouted as they backed away from it.

“We can’t get the door opened!” Screamed Claire, as she wrenched at the door, which was covered in what looked like rust. But rust wasn’t that shiny, or sticky, and the two, Claire and Rebecca, resorted to trying to scrape it off.

“Wait. We should try and get Hea-Cheryl! We should try and get Cheryl! What if she’s still alive?” Douglas moved a step forward, trying to calculate a safe way to get to Heather.  
“We can’t though! We need to leave her and move!” Someone grasped at Douglas’s arm, but he shook them off. There was no way he was going to just leave Heather here, not when there was still a chance.

He took several steps forward, almost as if he was challenging the monstrosity, and moved for the rifle. A long-ranged weapon was not the wisest choice, but it was powerful and that was all that mattered to Douglas. He raised the weapon and was about to shoot, when something dropped down from the ceiling on to the triangular thing.

It looked similar to the helmeted thing, but its head was uncovered, it’s face blurred and almost non-existent. The group didn’t know what it was, but it began to wrench at the helmet, driving the one monster backwards, away from Heather.

Douglas barely waited any time before he shot forward and gathered Heather in his arms. Huge, meaty flecks fell to the ground as Barry helped Claire and Rebecca wrench the door open. As the things backed into Archive 4, Chris darted forward and slammed the door shut as the rest began to hurry out of the hallway.

“Oh shit oh shit what the hell was that?!” Claire began to panic as her and Jill began to move filing cabinets in front of the archive hallway door, a task made more difficult by the sudden grating and rusty patches filling the room. “And how the hell did Cheryl know what it was?!”

Douglas didn’t answer, as he and Rebecca began to tend to Heather. He was too worried about Heather to wonder much about anything.

“She’s still breathing, but there is no way that I’ll be able to help her here. She’s losing too much blood and if she goes into shock….”

“There’s that hospital near here, right?” Chris turned to Cybil, who pulled out the maps. “We can go there. Even if there isn’t anyone around, we should be able to help Cheryl there.”

Rebecca had just finished tying a quick bandage; something she hoped would stem the bleeding, when a woman rushed into the room.

Everyone turned, guns in hand, but the woman ignored all that and motioned to them, pale and shaking as she looked at Heather.

“Oh god he got to her! I thought we would have enough time… Quick, you need to follow me. Valtiel can only hold off the Executioner for so long, and she needs a hospital.” The woman looked worried, and motioned for them to follow her out of the building. “Hurry! We can only keep the way opened for so long.”

Douglas looked at Chris, who nodded and stood. “Lead the way. But don’t even think of trying anything funny. The situation is bad enough as it is.”

The woman nodded and motioned for them to come. “Follow me, and hurry. It’s dangerous here and we need to go before he finds you again.”

Douglas gathered Heather up in his arms, and they all hurried outside, into an impossibly dark street. It was pitch black, and Heather’s radio was still screeching, the static blending into the background noises. They jogged down the street after the woman, no one even noticing that the layout of the streets had changed, the hole they’d encountered gone and replaced with another.

They dodged through a store, and finally slipped through the back gates of the hospital. The woman led them inside, past boarded up windows and doors, and right into an operating room. 

“Set her down here! Doctor Kauffman! I know you are lurking around so GET OUT HERE NOW” The woman was quiet and polite while directing Douglas, but the minute she called for the doctor her entire demeanor changed. 

A thin, scowling man stepped into the room, took one look at Heather, and immediately began to bark orders at the woman.

“Lisa! Get her out of her outfit and get her stable! We need to move fast!”

The woman, Lisa, scowled at the doctor. “I know how to do my job, Doctor, unlike you. But we can argue about your failings AFTER we save this girl.” 

The two glared at each other momentarily, before turning away. The doctor began to scrub his hands, and Lisa pulled out the tools.

“What is going on?” Chris whispered to Douglas, who shrugged.

“I have no clue. I have no idea who these people are, or what that thing was. But if they help her, then I have no objections.”

The group stood over to the side as the pair began to help Heather, talking quietly amongst themselves. Heathers backpack was discarded to the side, alongside her damaged clothing and vest, and Claire grabbed the pack up before it was soaked in blood.

As she passed it to Douglas, Cybil spoke up, confused and weary. 

“I…think I’ve seen these two before. I think I have, anyway…That time I was here, I saw them….” Cybil stared at them as they began to close the wound on Heather’s front. “But I just can’t remember where…All my memories of this place have grown fuzzy since I was here.”

Douglas turned to Rebecca, and asked, “What were their names again?”

“Uhm…Lisa and Kauffman I believe? Why?” Rebecca took Heathers backpack from Douglas as he began to dig through his.

“When we were back at the Records Office, Cheryl and I were looking into the cult members, and we grabbed some files. Kauffman sounds familiar…I think there was a file on him there.” Douglas pulled out the think bunch of files, and spread them out on the floor.

“Uhm….you do know that that’s technically theft, right?” Rebecca said, picking up the file labeled “Wolf, Leonard” and flipping through it.

“Yes, but considering Cheryl was just stabbed by a monster with a triangle for a head I don’t really think that maters all that much. And seeing as it looks like we’re the only people still in town, other than those two, who is going to arrest me?” Douglas picked up Kauffman’s file. “Ah! Found it! Let’s see what this says….”

As Douglas and Rebecca started reading the pilfered files, Cybil and Claire sat on the floor, silent and trying to ignore everything, and Chris, Barry, and Jill, who were also trying to not watch what Heather was going through, tried to focus on a strategy in case they happened to encounter the strange monster again.

“…well it seemed to just soak up our shots, so handguns are out, maybe something more powerful, like a shotgun?”

“If we can find a good one I suppose. I mean, we were ready for Umbrella, but we were not really ready for their BOW’s roaming the streets. This was supposed to be a small facility, one that abruptly cut off all communications and was only involved in paper and pen research. The worst we were prepared for was zombies, if there were any in the first place...”

“Yeah. Not to mention that thing that swam under the bridge. If we run into that we’re going to need all of us working with what we have. I guess this’ll teach us to be underprepared. Next time, no matter how small the job, I’m bringing my magnum and a shotgun.”

It was hard for the group to ignore what was happening in the background, and anytime a word was uttered by Lisa and the doctor, their heads shot up, worried that something had happened to Heather. Finally, after Douglas and Rebecca had finished their files, Barry, Chris, and Jill had concocted several emergency plans, poorly constructed plans for Silent Hill, but plans none the less. Lisa walked towards them, and the doctor walked over to the various monitors next the bed, double checking the readings.

“Uhm….We’re done. Dr. Kauffman thinks she’ll be ok, but she needs to stay asleep and rest for a bit. Nothing really vital was hit, but she has lost quite a lot of blood.” Lisa fidgeted a bit, looking down and frowning, before asking, “Do you…. Do you know if Harry is here too? I met him here last time and I just wanted to thank him. Thank him and tell him that it’s not his fault and I’m ok….”

Jill and Chris looked at each other before answering, “No…. there isn’t a Harry traveling with us. Sorry?”

Cybil looked up though, and replied. “You’re…Lisa, that nurse Harry talked about, right? I think I saw you before we left town….I think. My memories of this place have been going a little downhill. I hate to tell you this, but Harry’s dead. He was killed in a home invasion 5 years ago.”

Lisa looked devastated, but nodded sadly. “I see…. Well I suppose its best we care for Cheryl instead. Why are you in town again?”

The doctor turned from Heathers body and stripped the bloody gloves off of his hands. “I’m leaving now. I have better things to do with my time than chit-chat with these people.”

“Wait.” Douglas stood and walked over to him, still holding the file folder. “Are you Michael Kauffman?”

“Yes, that is me. Why?” Kauffman sneered at Douglas.

“Well I just wanted to know because this file here is on Michael Kauffman, and, if you are one in the same, then you are the director of this hospital, as well as one of the most influential members of “The Order”. And, you see, last time me and Cheryl were here we had some…..unpleasant encounters with other members of “The Order”.“ Douglas crossed his arms and glared at Kauffman, whose face grew even sourer.

“Feh. The Order doesn’t exist anymore. Look at this town! Do you really think she-“ He gestured towards Heather,”-would really let it exist anymore? They all died, or left, or just disappeared. This town won’t accept them anymore, not after what they did. Now if you’d excuse me, I’ll be in my office.”

Kauffman stormed out of the operating room, slamming the door behind him.

“…Wow you sure work with a charmer there, Lisa.” Claire said, looking up from the floor. “But, what did he mean? I mean, it’s not like Cheryl is going around killing people in this cult, right?”

Lisa sighed, opened her mouth, then blinked twice. “Wait, you mean…Oh, Cybil, and uhm…” She pointed at Douglas. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Douglas handed Rebecca the file and him and Cybil followed her out of the room, the others sending confused looks towards the door.

After they’d walked around the corner, to where the pay phones were located, Lisa turned to them. “What do they know? About Cheryl, about this town, about Alyssa?”

Douglas sighed. “We didn’t say anything about Cheryl. To them, she’s a young lady who’s traveled here several times and was brave enough to return. About the town, they know the basics.”

“The basics?” Lisa asked, arms crossed and tense.

“Oh, you know, the fact that there is a cult, people tend to disappear or die in strange ways, and no one seems to want to come here. Just the basics.” Cybil shrugged.

“Hmmm…. Well, you may need to tell them more. The truth, I mean.” Lisa ran her fingers through her hair, worried.

“Why? I think we will do fine the way we are, personally. Even with that…thing attacking, we should be able to make our way to our destination and leave. It can’t be that hard.” Cybil said, looking around. “Hey….why aren’t there any people here? Even if Brookhaven’s become more popular there should at least be more people around. At least someone to ask us questions about what happened to Cheryl, someone to check her in and such.”

“But that’s one of the reasons why you need to tell them the truth! We aren’t even in the ‘real world’ right now, we’re in the Otherworld! Not to mention what they’ll think of you when they find out the real past of this town! They need to be told everything before something really bad happens, something even worse than this…..Who are they, even?” Lisa finally asked. Douglas was a little surprised that she held out this long before asking, but the fact that she had been up to her arms in a torso wound, he couldn’t blame her.  
“They’re government agents. They are looking into the Umbrella facility in the town, and so far think everything is a bi-product of that…Personally, I think Heather needs to be awake if we decide to talk about all of this.” Douglas shuffled his feet.

“Heather? Who’s Heather?” Cybil and Lisa looked at him in confusion, and Douglas mentally swore.

“Heather is Cheryl, and Cheryl is Heather. As far as I know, a girl named Alyssa split into Cheryl, who was adopted by the Mason’s. Then, Cheryl and Mr. Mason returned to Silent Hill, and Cheryl became Alyssa again. Then after what happened, Alyssa/Cheryl was reincarnated into Heather. So Heather is Cheryl, she just uses that name because it’s the one you’re familiar with…and because she wants to keep hidden, in case anymore of the Order’s members show up. But she’s still Heather, completely different from Cheryl, but still the same…. Does that make any sense to you?”

“Yeah…” Lisa said, “That would explain what Kauffman said too. Since Cheryl, I mean, Heather is the reincarnation of her other selves, then she still contains all the powers Alessa had forced on her.”

“What does that mean, then?” Cybil asked.

“Well, it means that most of the nightmares here will avoid you. She technically created them, so they won’t hurt her. She is the mother, she controls this nightmare.”  
“But then why did that thing attack her?” Douglas asked. “And why did they all attack when we were here last time?”

Lisa took a moment to think before answering, “Well…the Executioner isn’t one of her monsters, per say. Another person, a man, came into town years ago and created his own nightmare, wracked with guilt and fear. The Executioner is left over from that time. Maybe the man hasn’t been able to leave the town, or maybe the guilt and fear was so strong that the Executioner has been imprinted on the town. And I can’t really say why they attacked you last time. But, maybe she didn’t have a grip or understanding of her past and couldn’t take control… Why were you here then? That might have something to do with it as well.”

Douglas was quick to answer. “One of the Order, Claudia something or other, killed Harry and told Heather to come to Silent Hill and remember her true self. Also something about birthing a god, whatever that meant…I assume that nut job was talking about Alyssa, but anyways, we came and Heather got her revenge on Claudia.”

“Claudia…..I think I remember her…..she was around Alyssa age when I was….. Anyways, well, the traumatic experience probably negated the nightmares loyalty, and the fact that Heather probably didn’t know much of her past certainly wouldn’t have helped. So, are we waiting for Heather to wake up before we do or say anything?” Lisa sidestepped the awkward part of the conversation, why Heather needed revenge, and moved onto the most important issue.

“Yes. It would probably be for the best. Then she can explain exactly what is happening. Even I don’t know everything about this hell-hole and I’ve lived with her for five years.” Douglas turned, and they all walked back into the operating room.

“What’s going on?” Claire asked as soon as they returned. “Is something wrong with Cheryl?”

“Yes, well, no, not really…. We figured we’d wait until she woke up to talk. There’s something she needs to know, something that could be an issue, but it can wait until she is awake.” Lisa shook her head, and moved to clean up the room, collecting the bloody interments and clothing from around Heather. “Typical Kauffman…never cleaning up his messes…”

Chris waved Douglas and Cybil over, and they sat down. Rebecca had gathered the files and, while the three were outside talking, the Raccoon group had started reading them.  
“Were these people for real? I mean, this White Claudia drug sounds nasty, not to mention how far entrenched in this town this Order was. It looks like they had an iron in every fire around here.” Jill picked up a file. “Not to mention this lady. It says here that her house burnt down due to a fault in the boiler, but someone’s added a note that says they think she set the fire on purpose to kill her daughter. What sort of lunatic does that?!”

Douglas stayed quiet as Cybil and the others discussed the files, worrying for Heather and how the others would react to her tale. The Raccoon group would probably be shocked and angry, and probably wouldn’t even believe them. They might even decide that there was something wrong with Heather, and vote to leave, to leave the moderate safety of the hospital without her.

“Douglas?” He looked up, to see everyone looking at him.

“Y…es?”

“Are you ok?” Lisa had come and sat with the group, bringing a gift of folding chairs so the group wouldn’t have to sit on the floor, and stating that she was assigned to Heather and wasn’t needed anywhere else, and was now staring at him. “How are you feeling?”

Douglas smiled, “I’m ok. Just tired and worried about Cheryl. What was the question again?”

“Well,” Claire stated, “We decided we didn’t really know that much about you and Cybil, so we were just wondering if you could tell us a bit about yourself?”

“Oh! Well, My name is Douglas Cartland. I live in Brahms with Cheryl, my roommate, and I have no children. I was a detective, then a private detective and then a detective again. Uhm… I like Chinese food and Cheryl says I’m bad at remembering to do things like taking out the garbage. Honestly there isn’t much else for me to say. My favourite colour if dark green and I’m allergic to shellfish?”

“Well, what about that other time you were here? Could you tell us about that?” Jill asked, curious.

“When I was here with Cheryl? I don’t really think I should be the one talking about that time…” Douglas tried to evade the question. Talking about that…adventure would not be fun.

“Oh, no! I meant the time you came here for the missing persons case. Can you tell us about that?”

“I can tell you about. That trip here wasn’t as…exciting as the one I took with Cheryl though.”

“But I’m sure it is still interesting.” Rebecca said.

Douglas smiled a bit. “To tell the truth, that case still nags at me. I was hired by Frank Sutherland to find his son, James. His daughter-in-law, Mary, was sick, and then one day both James and Mary seemed to drop off the edge of the earth. The law enforcement had given up, believing that James, who had been displaying erratic behavior, had done something to his wife and possibly killed himself, judging from the notes and scraps of paper found in the couple’s house. Frank, however, didn’t believe that though, and hired me to look for his boy. I eventually tracked him to Silent Hill, a place the couple had visited several times, and found nothing. The hotel they stayed at every time they came into the town had burnt to the ground, the public park was closed off, and no one was able to give me a straight answer about the two. I was forced to give up the case for another, but Frank and I do still keep in touch.”

“So you really couldn’t find anything about him? That must have been disappointing.”

“Hmm. Yeah. It would be nice to see if I could find anything this time, but Heather’s wellbeing and your investigation comes first, but if I was able to find anything that would be nice.”

The group sat there, chatting and worrying for some time, with Lisa moving between the group and Heather, when Lisa called to Douglas.

“Douglas, she’s waking up. Can you come over here?”

Douglas stood, and walked over to Heather. She wasn’t as pale anymore, and as she opened her eyes, Douglas knew she would be alright.

“Douglas….? What happened…?” She tried to sit up, but Lisa gently pushed her back on to the bed. “Lisa…?”

“Something attacked you, back in the archives. We got you away, and then Lisa showed us the way to the hospital.” Douglas smiled down at Heather, finally able to relax now that she was awake.

“Cheryl, you’ve lost quite a bit of blood, and are defiantly going to have a scar, but you should be able to be up and moving soon. But for now you just need to sleep.” Lisa patted Heathers arm, and moved to the machinery, double checking the numbers and writing them on a chart.

“Is she ok then? Chris asked. “I know how bad she’s been injured, but she seems to know this town best, and we really should continue soon. Will she be ready to move soon?”

Lisa scowled, and turned to Chris. “She will be ready to continue when I say she’s ready to continue! Let her sleep, and maybe when she wakes again we’ll see.”

The two glared at each other, and only when Douglas and Jill distracted the two, did they relax. Claire started to tell them about Rockford Island, and her encounters with the Ashford family, Chris intersecting when he felt she’d missed something important, when Heather woke up again.

Lisa moved to her, asking her how she felt, and whether or not she would be able to sit up.

“I should be able to…. I can barely even feel my wound anymore.” Heather sat up, and Lisa checked her bandages.

“Hmm… Well you don’t seem to be bleeding much anymore, but be careful. I want you to stay on the bed for now.”

Heather smiled. “Ok, Lisa. I think I can do that.”

Douglas was the first to come to her side, and he leant down and began to whisper. “We need to explain everything to them. Lisa says we are still stuck in the Otherworld, and we can’t continue lying. Not if we want them to trust us later.”

Heather went a little pale, and waved for Lisa.

“Yes? What is it? Is it bothering you?” Lisa began to fuss over Heather, and peeked at the wound. “Oh! Well, I can see why you aren’t sore anymore…”

Heather made a noise, as Lisa began to prod at her. “What do you mean? And do I really need to explain everything? Wouldn’t it be better to just keep quiet?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, you need to tell them everything, even more so now. Your wound…it’s completely healed. Not a tear in the skin or even a scar. How would we explain that without scaring them? Or provoking them?”

Heather contemplated it for a moment. On one hand, telling them would help them to understand what was happening, but on the other, they may reject her story, and leave. She wouldn’t want their deaths on her conscious.

“What’s up? You guys have been whispering to each other for a while now. I feel kinda left out!” Jill walked over to Heather. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

“Better than I did before, but still kinda woozy.” Heather inhaled deeply, and sighed. “I have something to tell you guys. You have to promise to listen to the entire thing before you make any decisions, and you need to keep any questions until I’m finished.”

Rebecca looked at Barry, and Chris frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We… haven’t exactly been all that truthful, about Silent Hill. Yes, Douglas, Cybil, and I have been to Silent Hill before, at least once, and yes, I do know this town better than most people. But we haven’t exactly been truthful about the nature of Silent Hill.”

“What do you mean?” Everyone had moved closer to Heather’s bed, moving the chairs so they could hear her better, as her voice was still a little bit raspy.

“Silent Hill….Well, I would start from the beginning, but I don’t think there is a single person who knows what created this town. Some rumours state that this town used to be considered sacred to the tribes nearby, but others claim the tribes considered it cursed. Early in the town’s history numerous disasters shook the town, and a steadily growing number of murders and suicides increased so much a sanitarium was built, as well as a hospital with a mental health wing. The Order, a cult whose success started with the discovery and exploitation on a plant and the drug created from its leaves. Using the flower, the Order cemented its hold on the town, killing and entrancing influential townsfolk. 

The Raccoon group looked at each other, confused and worried as to why Heather was telling them this. Claire moved to ask Heather something, but Lisa shushed her.

“Let her finish.”

“Now, the beliefs of the Order stemmed from a devotion to their ‘God’. If you went into any of their secret churches, or even into the main church here, you can see artwork depicting their god, her birth, her life, her death. The order believed that their ‘God’ would be resurrected, born again, and would lead the believers to a “Paradise”. The Order continued for several years, growing power and influence, until Dahlia Gillespie became the leader. She said she knew the way to summon back their god, and unfortunately, she was right.”

Heather took a deep breath. It was hard talking about this, about her past and the town. She almost felt as if it didn’t want her to reveal its secrets, but she knew she had to continue.

“Dahlia began her plan, which required a young girl to be sacrificed, to become the mother of the god through pain, suffering, and by being held at deaths door, unable to pass through. Dahlia took it upon herself to provide the sacrifice, and birthed a daughter for that purpose alone. When the girl reached the age of ‘prophesy’, 14, Dahlia and the other Order members began the ritual. The girl was drained, emotionally and physically, and left as a ‘boiler malfunction’ set the house ablaze. The girl, somehow still alive, was stolen away, half dead, and placed in a secret room, hidden in the basement of Alchemilla Hospital. Dahlia cried success, content knowing that with only a drug-dependant nurse in red, and a cruel Doctor, that the daughter would be left in constant pain and distress, and would birth their god. The Daughter had other ideas, and used the power that was growing within her to split her soul. She sends half her soul, the innocent half, outside her mother’s sphere of influence. Taking the form of a baby, it was adopted and was able to spend 7 years away from the horrors of Silent Hill. The other half stayed in the hospital, asleep, creating a world of dreams, of nightmares. The Order, Dahlia, was outraged by Alyssa rebellion, and vowed to cause more pain and suffering in order to draw the innocent part back to Silent Hill.”

Lisa drew her legs up, looking pale and sick. Heather knew Lisa was feeling guilt, even though she’d only known her as Alyssa. 

“Now, the baby, the innocent part of the daughter, lived several years of relative bliss. But then, 4 years after the death of the adoptive mother, she begs her father to take her to Silent Hill. Her father agrees, and they leave on vacation. As they drive into Silent Hill, they encounter an officer, who then disappears, leaving her bike behind. The father, distracted by the apparent crash, turns his eyes away from the road, and it is only the daughter’s yell that alerts him to the girl in the road. The father swerves, and crashes through a barrier, and is knocked out. When the father comes to, the daughter is gone and he is alone, on the outskirts of a seemingly empty, foggy town. The father begins his hunt for the daughter, and meets the officer, the nurse in red, the cruel doctor Dahlia, and the tortured girl. He hunts through the town, following clues left by the daughter and defying the horrors created by the tortured girl. He soon reaches the end of his search, only to be played by Dahlia, and reaches a new level of hell. But, with the help of the nurse in red and the officer, and the help of the cruel doctor, the father stops the birth of the god. He stops the birth, but the daughters, the tortured girl and the innocent girl, had merged back into one, and are beyond saving. As the cruel doctor is dragged away by the nurse in red, the officer and father stand together as the nightmare world crumbles around them. The daughter, whole again, ghostly, hands the father a baby, the reincarnation of the two combined. He takes the little girl, and leaves with the officer, running from the town, and after several days, go their separate ways. 

Heather looked at the group, who was staring at her, unsure of what the story meant. “Don’t worry, I’m almost done with this story, then you can decide.” 

“…decide what?” Barry whispered to Jill who shrugged, intrigued by the story.

Heather took a couple sips of water before continuing. “For 16 years, the father and child live in hiding, a false last name, changing towns and lives whenever a stray Order member appeared in their lives. However, those days were soon to end. A detective, blind to his employers intentions, found the girl, and the father was killed. Upon this revelation, the detective resolved to help the daughter, and left with her to Silent Hill, to help her get her revenge. The daughter and the detective go their separate ways, each hunting through different, hellish areas for the truth. The detective is waylaid by the Order member, and the daughter confronted by town occupants, and her past self. Overcoming the past, the daughter confronts the woman, the Order member, and rejects all she says. The daughter refuses her ‘destiny’ and rejects what is growing within her, destroying the ‘God’ of Silent Hill, now dead and gone a second time. Safe and her revenge got, the daughter and the detective leave the town, vowing to never return, but also to monitor the town, to keep the hell they experienced from happening to another.”

Heather took another deep breath, and accepted some more water from Douglas, who then spoke up.

“Can I finish this story?” he asked, and after Heather’s nod, continued. “The detective and the daughter return to the daughter’s home, and deal with everything caused by the death of the father. The daughter, done with her old life, changes her name. She moves to Brahms with the detective, in order to monitor the road to Silent Hill. The officer her father met had become a chief, and accepted the daughter and detective into her district, giving them jobs they needed. Then some government agents enter Brahms, and decide they needed to visit Silent Hill. As much as they dread it, the daughter and the detective know that they must be the ones to lead the agents into Silent Hill, because no one else will, and they don’t want any more deaths on their conscience.”

“….” The Raccoon group stared, mouths ranging from the tight lipped, Chris and Jill, to the “jaw-on-the-floor”, Claire.

“Oh!” Cybil spoke up, “And, let me guess, the story stops around the time the daughter is stabbed by some big thing with a knife? Because if so, that sounds awfully familiar.”

“What….are you trying to say, Cheryl? That you are actually the girl in that story? That your mother tried to kill you, that you split in half, that you died and were reincarnated? Because that is ludicrous.” Jill scowled at them. “Do you really think we would believe something like that?”

“Yes, I do. And you know why? Because you believed when zombies attacked, in Raccoon City. You believed when a corporation created something previously only found in comic books and cheesy television. Once you’ve faced that, how hard can it be to believe that this town is a blight, a cursed location that was monopolized by a cult for the sake of religion. I didn’t ask to create this world, I didn’t even mean to. I may be the reincarnation of Alyssa, of seven-year-old Cheryl, but I didn’t create this world. I do, however, understand it. And I can suppress most of it. Some may say that-“ 

Heather had to stop for a moment. Even with her wound closed up, she was still sore and weak, and she’d been talking for a long period of time.

“-that the town was like this before the Order did the ritual, to summon the god, but even if it is true, the nightmare Alyssa created is still here, now a part of this town.”

Rebecca looked closely at Heather, who was beginning to fidget under the accusing looks from the others. “Why didn’t you tell us this earlier? It would have helped, so we could have been more prepared.”

“I…. Didn’t want you to think I was crazy, that I was just telling you a lie so you wouldn’t enter the town. Besides, would you have believed me, before coming here, if I told you my story?” Heather rubbed at the IV Lisa had put in her arm, only to have her hand slapped away by Lisa.

“No, I suppose we wouldn’t have believed you. Actually, I think we would have recommended that you were move to the nearest psychiatric facility. Where would that be, anyways?” Barry said, looking less accusing and more contemplative.

“Silent Hill, actually. Which is why most people keep their major mental health issues to themselves.” Cybil said, in a deadpan voice.

“Oh….”

Chris stood. “Lisa, is there a place outside we can go talk? We need to think and talk about what you just told us, Cheryl, before we continue, if we continue.”

“Yes. There’s a small sitting area just by the front desk. Don’t worry, no one will bother you, or overhear your conversation, if you’re worried about that.” Lisa opened the door, and pointed, showing Chris where the seats were, as the rest of the Raccoon survivors walked out of the room.

“I guess now we just wait until they decide? I mean, it’s not like we can do much right now, with me like this…..” Heather flopped back down onto the bed and sighed.

“Well, no matter what they decide, I won’t let you leave until you are ready….Cheryl, you need to know something. The god you rejected, last time you were here…”

“Yeas, what about it? …Oh god has it come back?!” Heather looked sick, and turned onto her side.

“Yes…..It’s returned, but it isn’t as large as I’d thought it would be. I’m not sure, I need to collaborate with Dr. Kauffman to be sure, but I think living outside of Silent Hill, and not having to face the pressures, is hampering its growth.” Lisa took a look at the machinery monitoring Heather, as Heather groaned in displeasure.

“What did you do to get rid of it in the first place, Heather?” Douglas asked.

“…My father had something hidden in my pendant, and I swallowed it. I don’t know what it was, but it was red and it worked. Do you have an idea of what it was?” Heather asked, fiddling with her necklace.

“I don’t…I never knew all that much while I was alive, before and after the drugs, and even though I learnt so much after my death, I still don’t know a fraction of what is going on in this town.” Lisa shook her head, and was about to say more, when the Raccoon group opened the door.

Everyone was silent as they filed into the room, and, for a moment, all stood there awkwardly. Finally, Chris spoke up.

“Can you elaborate? We need to know more about this town, and the truth, if we are going to be working together.”

Heather, Lisa, and Douglas all smiled, glad to be believed, and glad to still be considered part of the mission.

“Where do you want me to start?”


	7. Chapter 7

"Can you tell us more about the town?" Chris asked.

"Well," Heather started, "I did just tell you guys quite a bit, so is there anything in particular you wanted to know more about? Cuz otherwise it'd just be more general info that might not be too useful."

As Heather began to answer questions, Douglas motioned Lisa to come stand by him.

"Lisa, that doctor, would he possibly know where and what the red stuff Heather used last time is?"

Lisa nodded. "I believe so. Dr. Kauffman was one of the unofficial leaders of The Order, so he would probably know about something like that."

"Okay," Douglas said. "Where would he have stormed off to? I want to have another talk with him."

"Well, he's probably got himself holed up in the Director's Office. It's one of the few places in the hospital with a label still on the door, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding it. It's on this floor, just past a pair of double doors."

As Douglas left the room, the line of questioning turned from Heather to Lisa.

"Lisa, how much can you tell us about this place? You obviously work here, and you seem to be knowledgeable about things concerning the town." Chris turned to Lisa.

She fidgeted before replying. "W-well, the hospital is old. Everyone's moved to the other one, Brookhaven, but there are still some staff stationed here. I don't know too much though. I mean, I haven't really worked here for years."

"…What do you mean?" Rebecca asked. "You quit then?"

"Ah, well, I…." Lisa looked uncomfortable. "Yes. I quit. I couldn't work here, with Kauffman."

Claire could see that Lisa was uncomfortable, so decided to shift the questioning back to Heather. "So, what were those girls' names, in your story, Cheryl?"

"Alessa, Dahlia's daughter, Cheryl, half of Alessa's soul, and Heather, Alessa and Cheryl's half-souls made into one. Me."

"Your name's Heather? Then why are you using Cheryl?" Claire asked.

"Well, because if there are any Order members they would know Heather more than Cheryl. And I wanted to start over." Heather fidgeted. "Are there any more questions?"

"What was that thing? The one that stabbed you and the thing that swam past us. And when will you be able to continue? We should start moving again." Chris seemed to have a one track mind about this mission of his, and Heather sighed.

"I…think it was the Executioner. They say he was a human, once, and became twisted. I don't know much more about him though. And that swimming thing…I don't know. I've never seen something like that before. And Lisa is the only one who can tell if I'm ok to go."

Lisa looked Heather over, checked her pulse and bandages, and nodded. "You should be able to move but only if you feel up to it. But-"She turned to Chris, "-There is still some stuff I need to get. I did leave some of my stuff here though, and I would appreciate it if someone could go get it from the locker room for me."

Chris nodded, and Barry and Cybil both stood.

"I'll go get your things," the two said at the same time.

"Actually…. Both of you may have to go. We have all seen the Otherworld now, but because Cybil has been here before, I know for sure that she'll be able to merge back into this world better. Here, I'll write my locker combo down for you." Lisa grabs a piece of scrap and scribbled down some numbers before passing it to Barry.

"Why can't you go get it? I mean, I know you're supposed to be looking after Cheryl, but she's fine." Claire looked confused.

"I…Well…" Lisa's shoulders slumped. "I can't."

Heather entered the conversation, to cover Lisa who was beginning to look distressed. "The…in the story, I mentioned a nurse in red. That was Lisa."

"But how can that be? You should look much older, if you were helping this Alessa girl." Everyone stared at Lisa, only to look away in confusion when something started dripping on the floor, trying to find the source.

"It's because I'm dead." Lisa looked up, and the group could see blood beginning to stream down her face. "I…Kauffman, he, he made me kill myself, you could say. I couldn't take the addiction, the White Claudia, watching over Alessa, so I ended it. So, in a way, I guess I did quit. I was here when Harry was here, but I didn't know I was gone until the end. I stopped Kauffman from leaving from running from what he did, and now he's stuck here too…forever. Until this town goes to dust and the cult with it."

Chris reached for his gun and everyone else backed up as the blood began to move at a faster pace. Lisa's face was almost completely red, and her uniform was beginning to stain, when Heather spoke up again.

"I…I'm sorry. For this. For dad running away from you. For everything." She looked down, until Lisa moved in and hugged her. Heather hugged back, and the only thought that went through her mind was 'why aren't I getting blood on me?'

Lisa straightened, and adjusted her outfit. "No, it's…its okay. I don't blame him. If I was in his shoes I'd have run too." She smiled wanly. "Don't worry. I'm not going to harm you."

Chris kept his hand on his gun, not relaxing. "So, you knew her dad? What is going on?"

Lisa nodded. "Harry came here, years ago, and we met here. I didn't know what was going on, what I was, but Harry, he tried to help me."

Heather nodded. "Yeah, Dad told me about Lisa, years ago. He always said he regretted not standing and helping you, in that room." Heather turned to Lisa, who smiled, and clutched her hands together.

"Like I said, there was nothing he could have done. I was doomed from the start, really. Cybil, Mr. Burton, I'll show you how to get back to the real world. If you'd follow me?"

Barry clutched the paper with Lisa's combo, and followed after her and Cybil.

While they were out of the room, Jill asked the question all the S.T.A.R.S were thinking. "Will Lisa become a threat to us, Cheryl?"

"No, she won't. We won't let her, me and Alessa." Heather said, sliding off of the bed. She stood, wobbling, but began to walk around the room. "Lisa is good."

"…You and Alessa?" Jill asked, and Heather just smiled.

-Meanwhile—

Douglas left the room, and headed right for the Director's Office. Finding it, he didn't bother to knock, instead just pushing the door open.

"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing? Just because you're with that girl does not give you the right to just barge in anywhere-"Douglas cut Kauffman off, getting the impression that the man was the type to rant and rave without an end.

"Tell me about something. Heather used some kind of red crystal when she was here, to expel this… god thing. What is it, where can we find some, can we make it. I need to know now, and I am not feeling too patient." He crossed his arms, and Kauffman sneered at him.

"I was speaking, you know, but I think you're talking about Aglaophotis…. Lords, I haven't heard that name in a while. First off, you can't make it but you can distill it from its solid form into a liquid. I have no idea what it is, nor do I know where it comes from, but I know where to find it. I'll tell you, but on one condition."

"What." Douglas had no intention of fulfilling Kauffman's request, and his voice and posture expressed this.

"Get her to release me. I've had enough of being a monster, I just want to die." Douglas raised an eyebrow before replying.

"Well, I'll see what I can do, but I guarantee nothing. If we do agree on that, nothing will happen until we get to where that Aglaophotis stuff is. We need it, and we need a lot. And you'd better not betray us. I don't know who'd you'd talk to, but I don't like being double crossed."

Kauffman snorted. "She's the only one who could release me, that nurse, so you need not worry about that…drivel."

Douglas nodded, and left the room.

He needed to talk to the rest of the group.

-mean-meanwhile-while—

"Ok, so I'm taking you outside, so when you appear you don't startle the staff." Lisa brought Cybil and Barry outside, and touched her hand to the side of the building, creating a symbol. "Touch this and you'll be sent to the 'real world'. After you're done, touch it again to come back. I'll be back in with the others, is that okay?"

"I'm ready." Barry said, and Cybil nodded.

"Okay, just touch here then. And remember, its locker 13, and the combo is 47, 2, 17. We'll be waiting in the room. Good luck." Lisa nodded at them, and Cybil grabbed Barry's arm as he touched the symbol.

They both felt a touch of nausea, but it was fleeting. They opened their eyes to see the courtyard was slightly more cluttered, but still deserted.

"Did it work?" Cybil asked, letting go of Barry and looking around.

"Let's hope so." He replied, and they entered the hospital again.

"Oh! Hello, welcome to Alchemilla Hospital, how can we assist you today?" A receptionist looked up at them, obviously surprised to see someone come inside.

"Hello," Cybil pushed in front of Barry, and flashed her badge. "My name is Cybil Bennet and I'm here on the behalf of Brahms Police Department. We are looking into an old disappearance with some new evidence, and we would like to be able to look at your second floor nurses locker room."

The receptionist called down the director, and he looked at Cybil's badge, looked at the piece of paper with the locker combo, and granted them access to the room. He called down a nurse to show them where to go, and the ensuring elevator ride was very awkward.

"So, you're here to look at a locker? Which one, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Locker 13." Barry answered the nurse, who was obviously interested in what they were doing.

"Locker 13? Good luck with that," the door opened, and the three stepped out of the elevator. "No one's been able to get that one open. It's become a legend, that one." She led them to the locker room, and let them in before returning to her duties.

"Can I help you?" An older nurse was in the room, writing something up, but waved them in after realizing that they were the police. "The locker's over there. Belonged to some nurse who disappeared ages ago. But if you can get it open then that's something I guess. We need the locker for the newer girl."

Barry took that as a chance to talk to the older woman about Lisa, and Cybil moved to the locker. She pulled out the combo, and, with ease, unlocked the lock. She swung the locker door open, and looked inside.

It was fairly empty, containing a change of clothing, a large bag, and a set of keys. Cybil worked quickly, shoving everything inside of the bag, muffling the clinking of the keys with Lisa's shirt.

"So, what's in there anyways?" Cybil turned to the nurse who was looking over her shoulder.

"It looks like the victims purse. We will need to take it though," The nurse looked ready to protest, and Cybil continued, "We've already spoken with your supervisor about this, and if you have an issue with this please speak with him." Cybil also took the lock, and her and Barry breezed out of the room.

They made their way to the first floor, thanked the receptionist, and went into the courtyard.

"Are you ready?" Barry asked, and at Cybil's nod, touched the symbol again. "Come on; let's get back to the others. I don't like being out here without more back-up."

They hurried back to the operating room, hopeful that they were rejoining the group and not some monsters.

-mean-mean-meanwhile-while-while—

Lisa returned to the room not long after Douglas, and sat on one of the chairs.

"Oh, good, Lisa you're back. Ok everyone, I went to talk to Kauffman."

"By yourself?!" Chris looked very annoyed, but didn't stomp over and yell at Douglas. Heather counted that as Chris starting to believe her story.

"Yes, by myself. Anyways, he told me we could find some of that Aglaophotis, but he will only show us if he goes free."

"What do you mean?" Claire asked, and Douglas clarified.

"Lisa trapped him here, by pulling him down into the town, and he wants to be let go, he wants to die."

They all sat in semi silence before Lisa started to laugh. It was a piercing, hysterical laugh, and that was what Barry and Cybil returned to.

"Uh… what's going on?" Cybil asked, walking in to the room and passing Lisa her bag.

Lisa took the bag and wiped normal, clear tears from her eyes. "Kauffman really said that?"

"…uh, yes? Why, what's so funny about that?" Everyone in the room, including Heather, was uneasy after Lisa's laughing outburst.

"Because I'm not the one keeping him here, he is. I couldn't keep him here if I tried, we're both dead! I may have said that he'd be here until the town turned to dust, but that doesn't mean I'm what's keeping him around." Lisa chuckled to herself, glad that she had one over on Kauffman.

"Ah, so, like a guilty conscious or something? That's what's keeping him here?" Jill asked.

"Hmph, I doubt Kauffman even knows what guilt is, the bastard." Lisa looked annoyed, and started digging through the bag. "Douglas, go tell him I'll 'let him go' if he shows us the Aglaophotis. We'll go there first, then…." Lisa pulled out the keys Cybil had put in the bag. "Hmm? What are these for?"

Douglas left the room to tell Kauffman the 'good news' and Cybil took the keys from Lisa.

"I don't know, they were in your locker though. Maybe someone else had been using it before you died?" Cybil flipped through the keys, reading their tags.

"Perhaps…." Lisa stood, bag in hand. "I'm going to go change. I'll be back in a moment." She also left the room.

"What are they keys for, Cybil?" Heather walked over to look at them too.

"I'm not too sure. I can't really ready the tags…this key though, look at the design on the handle of this one." Cybil held it up, a simple key with an eight-sided symbol on top.

Chris moved in, and stared at the key. "That's the Umbrella symbol. Can I see…?"

Cybil handed over the keys, and Lisa returned.

"So, what's up with the keys? Do you know what it opens?" She sat down, in pants, running shoes, and a light jacket instead of her usual red outfit. She'd also wiped herself off, no longer stained red with blood.

"We're not sure, but it has something to do with Umbrella. After we find this Aglaophotis stuff we're heading to the facility. We need to know what's happened there…As soon as Douglas gets back, we're going to head out. We can't afford to lose any more time here." Chris pocketed the keys and everyone got ready to leave.

Heather knelt by her bag, packing the files back inside, and strapped her sword back onto her belt. Douglas walked in, Kauffman in tow, and joined in on packing everything up. Lisa had emptied her bag out, and filled it with hospital supplies and what she had wanted to save from her bag, and Kauffman did nothing.

Finally they were ready, and began following Kauffman.

"Now, I have no idea if the case of Aglaophotis is still there, it's been…god, years, so it could have been destroyed or used up." He strolled down the street, everyone else behind him tense.

"Stop stalling, Doctor, and get going." Lisa scowled at him, and he picked up the pace, muttering things about her under his breath.

They walked for was about half an hour before Kauffman stopped.

"It should still be over here. I'll go check it out." He pushed open the gate, and slipped into a yard. Lisa narrowed her eyes, handed Heather her bag, and followed after.

"I trust him as far as I can fling him."

The rest of the group stood around, awkwardly, and Barry turned to Cybil, asking where they were.

"Well, I can't say for sure, the fog has grown so much thinker, but I think we're over here, near the centennial building." She stabbed a finger down on the map, a side street, then sighed. "I have no clue where we are."

While half the group moved to argue with the map, Heather kept an ear on her broken radio. She extended the antenna, turned it on, and turned it up before placing it back into her pocket. Her vest had been ruined, and she had to put her flashlight and radio in her pack.

"What sort of things did you see, last time you were here?" Rebecca moved over to Heather, curious and worried about what they might have to battle.

"Well, there were things , about yea high-," Motioning to her waist as a height indicator, "-and absolutely useless if they are alone. They look kinda like featherless chickens, and make weird moaning noises. If you get stuck with four or five of them though, yikes. They are pretty easy to take out though. Then there are these weird tall things. They have two arms, long as they are tall, with little knife like things inside their 'fists'. Tall, slow, and stupid, but deal a lot of damage if they catch you. There are also these huge, fatty things. Kinda look like lumps of flesh and puss, and terrible smelling. Harmless when they are asleep, but when they're awake they are pretty bad, and you'll need to…" Heather's talk of monsters drew the rest of the group over to her, and when Lisa returned, Kauffman in tow, they two groups had merged to one big map reading, monster killing, learning group.

"The stuffs in there…What's going on?" She released Kauffman's arm, and everyone turned to her.

"We don't know where we are." Cybil said, taking the map back from Claire.

"I'm telling them about monsters." Heather said, ending her description of the Mercenaries.

"O…kay then. Well, we're near the sanitarium and junk yard, and the Aglaophotis is in there. Do we want to…?" Lisa motioned to the back door of the house, and Heather and Chris moved ahead at the same time.

"Kauffman, you'll show me and Chris, and then Lisa will set you free, okay?" Heather pulled out her handgun, no longer as care free as she was in the records office.

Kauffman grumbled, and lead them through the house, down to the basement where it was covered with red crystals.

"There, see? I didn't trick you; I didn't betray you, yadda yadda. Now, can I go?" He was tapping his foot, impatient.

"Wait until…" Heather walked forwards, and pulled at a hunk, hanging from the ceiling. She ripped it down, letting it hit the floor so it would shatter into smaller pieces.

"Until…?" Kauffman asked, looking annoyed now.

"Just shut up, I need to make sure this is really the stuff." Heather contemplated eating a piece, but decided against that idea.

"But it sounds like this guy is the only one who knows what it looks like." Chris said, looking distrustfully at the crystals.

"No, I'll know if this is it. I just need to test something…" Turning away from them both, she picked up a large piece and licked it. She was immediately overcome with nausea, and her tongue burned. She started coughing, but was able to wave Chris off, who looked concerned. "This is the stuff. Gimmie a few, and I'll grab a bunch of this stuff and we can go."

She glanced at Kauffman. "And, yes, you too."

Heather pulled open her pack, rearranged her things, and filled a pocket with shards. Finally, she stood, her pack budging, and they left.

"So?" Douglas looked at Heather, who gave him a thumbs up.

"It's the stuff. Lisa, you wanna let Kauffman go now?"

Everyone backed away from where Kauffman and Lisa were standing, glaring at each other.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Let me go! Let me die!" Kauffman's temper finally broke, but Lisa just smirked.

"Oh, but Doctor, you don't understand! I don't even have control over you! The only person keeping you here is you! Or the town, I'm not too sure. Either or, but it isn't me holding you back." She smiled sweetly at him, before turning on her heel and walking towards the others. "There, I've 'released' Kauffman. Let's go."

The group hurried off as Kauffman gaped at nothing, jogging down a side street to get as far away from him as they could before he broke.

They were barely able to hear his scream when they stopped, and Lisa chuckled.

"I hated working for him…he was a tyrant."

"Hopefully not a literal one." Claire muttered to Rebecca, who giggled nervously.

"Ok, so we have the Aglaophotis stuff, where to next? The Umbrella facility?" Cybil asked.

"Yes. We need to get there as soon as possible. And I don't want to run into that…thing again." Jill said, straightening.

The group went silent, now worried and listening for a scraping noise.

"Yeah…Let's get going." They all started moving again at a good pace, not running, but not walking. The scare they had with Heather was enough to convince them that Silent Hill was dangerous, and that getting to the facility might even be safer than staying outside.

They dodged through the streets, swearing every time they had to back track, and mentally celebrating whenever they were able to pass through a store or back yard without being attacked.

They found themselves walking along the edge of the amusement park (Heather had venomously objected taking a short-cut through the park when they first came upon it), when they ran into a problem.

"It's blocked up." Heather said, staring at the large blockade and piles of rubble that blocked their path forward.

"And we can't even go back." Douglas said, staring at the crater that had opened up behind them.

Everyone spread out, trying doors, windows, and yards on the street opposite, but even after Barry tried to break a window they were not able to find a way.

What they did find was several holes in the chain-link fence surrounding the amusement park.

"I know you don't want to go in there." Lisa said, placing a hand on Heathers shoulder.

"It's okay. Something is leading us to the park, and trying to avoid it would be rude." She turned around, a tight smile on her face. "Come on, guys, we're not going to find a way over there. We're going to have to go through the park."

Heather ignored anything else anyone said to her, and pulled up a section of the chain-link. She squeezed through, and stood on the other side as everyone else moved through.

"Are you going to be okay?" Douglas asked, looking at the ferris wheel.

"No, probably not. But then again, I'm back in Silent Hill, I've been stabbed, and there are other people who kinda know my past." She laughed. "I don't think I'll be okay until we get out of this place."

Everyone stood, looked around at the park, and started walking.

"Jeeze, it feels like we're being funneled somewhere." Claire said, as the path seemed to narrow.

"I don't like this…" Barry replied, pulling out his gun.

The group slowed, and pulled out their weapons. After leaving Kauffman behind, their trek had been safe, but the entire trip through the park felt like a trap.

"Where are we being funneled to?" Jill asked Heather, moving up to the front of the line.

"I'm not too sure, but…It might be the marry-go-round. I hope not, though, I have had a bad experience on that ride. Actually, I've had a bad experience with this entire park."

As they moved closer, Heather could hear fair-ground music, and almost sobbed. The marry-go-round was working, and Heather was not looking forwards to finding out who was running it.

The group of nine eventually reached the end of the funnel, spreading out over the large, empty area in front of the ride. "Who's running this thing?" Chris walked into the control booth, and tried to shut it off. "It's not working?!"

He exited the booth and rejoined the others, just in time to hear something, or someone, Heather didn't want to see ever again.

"Hello, Heather. Have you returned with hate in your heart? Are you here to bring about our god, to create our paradise?"

A woman staggered out onto the deck of the marry-go-round, and Heather growled out a name.

"Claudia…"


	8. Chapter 8

"Claudia…"

Heather's hands clenched and Douglas stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"How are you alive? I know that you died, that day. Why are you back?" Heather snarled, preparing to draw her weapon.

Claudia lust laughed. "Oh, the hate is growing! Oh, for our paradise to finally be recognized! He said that our resurrection was a gift, and to destroy you all. But if you bring upon us paradise, then I need not worry." Claudia spun, weaving around a carousel horse as she laughed.

"Who brought you back? And who else was brought back? Hey, listen to me!" Heather yelled at Claudia, and everyone else drew their weapons as Heather's radio went off.

"We've got possible hostiles approaching from all sides. We all ready?" Chris took some control, directing everyone to prepare as Claudia answered.

"Haha, it was him, the man of many viruses, he who has become immortal, the wolf of a thousand betrayals. You have met him before, you who are the Fields of Red." Claudia's laugh was cut off as almost everyone started firing into the crowd of monsters surrounding them.

"But who else has been brought back!" Heather yelled, taking aim at several Numb-bodies.

"Me, the mother of our lady, the executioner, and the deceiver. We are coming for you, and I will have my paradise." Claudia seemed to sober up, before spinning off, leaving the group with a ton of monsters to deal with.

"What the hell was that!?" Barry yelled, as he took aim at a Closer.

"I have no fucking clue, but we need to get out of here now before we get more swarmed!" Heather shouted, and Chris nodded.

"Okay people, let's get going! We need to get somewhere else, somewhere safer. Heather, you've been here before, so we'll follow your lead." Heather nodded at Chris, and barged through the wall of Numb-bodies, who appeared to be doing their best to avoid Heather.

"Follow me!" the group bolted after Heather, following her as she ran around the monsters and dodged the holes in the ground that appeared as everything started going black.

"What the hell is going on?!" Jill yelled, sprinting up closer to Heather.

"We're transitioning to another version of Silent Hill. Listen for a horn, that will let us know when we're fully inside the next stage of Silent Hill's hell. Now quick, the gift shop is over here, we should be safeish in there." Heather powered ahead, panicking. Claudia was back, and she was pretty sure she had an idea who the other people brought back were.

The group burst into the gift shop, which was decently large and most importantly, empty.

"Huh…huh…huh… Is everyone…okay?" Heather asked, panting and leaning against a display.

"Haa… I think some of us have cuts and scrapes, but nothing super bad." Cybil replied.

"I can help with that," both Lisa and Rebecca said, before chuckling.

"I don't care who does it, but can someone patch me up?" Chris asked, and hand pressed to a bloody spot on his shirt. "One of those tall things got a lucky hit on me."

As Rebecca and Lisa started patching people up, Heather started talking.

"So, did you guys all hear what Claudia said?"

After a resounding 'no', Heather sighed and tried to repeat what Claudia had spouted at her.

"Er, okay so she said that the person that brought her back was uh, 'the man of many viruses'? And she said he was immortal. And that you know him, Chris and Claire, because your last name is 'Redfield' and all. Then she said that there were other people who'd been brought back. I have an idea about them though. A mother, Claudia, the executioner, and the deceiver. I think the mother is Dahlia, the executioner is that thing that attacked me, Claudia is, well, Claudia, but I have no clue about this 'deceiver' thing. I'm sure we'll find out though."

"Man of many viruses? Do you think…?" Jill looked at Chris and he tensed.

"It could be him…Ow! What the hell?" Chris turned to Lisa, rubbing his arm.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If I'd known that you wanted the possibility of tetanus or rabies or some other horrible disease, then I wouldn't have given you that. Next time I'll make sure to ask." Lisa tied off the gauze around Chris' shoulder, slapped a piece of clear tape on it, and stood, walking to Heather.

"Are you okay? No injuries at all?"

Heather shook her head. "No. It looks like the monsters were avoiding me. I think they recognize Alessa in me, so they are trying to keep their distance. That being said, I don't think the Executioner will keep away. Alessa never dreamed him up."

"What do you mean by that?" Jill asked, slapping a Band-Aid on her arm.

"Well, when Dad was here, the monsters that appeared were dreamed up by Alessa while she was in the hospital. She had a fear of dogs after a neighbor's almost bit her, so that's why there is a mutated dog-like monster. She loved Alice in Wonderland, so some other monsters were influenced by that. When I returned, the monsters were inspired by both her and me. I think the monsters are staying away from me, perhaps because they understand that I'm Alessa." Heather sat down, her back resting against a display. "So, who did you think was the person Claudia was talking about, the guy who revived her?"

"Wesker." Claire said, making a face.

"And he is…?" Douglas asked.

"Albert Wesker… He was our boss, when we were just S.T.A.R.S, before the Umbrella issue. He was working for S.T.A.R.S and Umbrella though, and betrayed us both for profit. We thought he was dead, but then Claire and I ran into him. He'd injected himself with the T-Virus, what started that horrible situation in Raccoon City, and managed to survive, adapting to the virus and retaining his human form. He's had it out for us, since we ruined his plans." Chris looked concerned.

"Do you think we'll have to worry about him?" Cybil asked.

"I don't think so… He likes people to know that he's around, so if he hasn't shown himself yet then I wouldn't count on it." Jill said.

"That's good then. We have the Executioner and all those monsters outside to deal with, I don't want to fight your old boss." Lisa said, her and Rebecca finally done patching everyone up.

"Wait, before anything, who is Claudia?" Jill asked.

"She…" Heather sniffled, suddenly upset. "In my story, my father was killed. She was the one who ordered it. She believed that I had to power to birth a 'god', and that only through pain, suffering, and hatred would it be born. She came into my home and set a monster upon my father, killing him. She then taunted me, drawing me to this town. Apparently, Alessa was close friends with her, but…" Heather shook her head. "Alessa never wanted this to happen, the paradise Claudia speaks of or some 'god', so I doubt Alessa matters anymore to her. Unfortunately, the part about being able to birth a 'god' is true. That's why I need the Aglaophotis. It helps me, uh, expel the…thing growing in me."

Everyone stared at her, vaguely revolted by the information.

"So, you mean you're basically pregnant with some kind of daemon thing?!" Claire said, a disgusted look on her face.

"…Yeah. And, luck me, Lisa said its back. And being in Silent Hill is making it grow faster." Heather said, before putting her head in her hands. "I think I'm allowed to say 'fuck my life' now."

"Oh Jeeze, what the hell? How does that even happen?" Rebecca and Claire both moved over to Heather, and they started to talk, trying to distract her. 'I just hope this doesn't complicate things any more. I really don't want to have to throw that up and have Claudia eat it again…' she though, before standing after noticing Chris was motioning everyone over.

"Okay, now how do we get out of here? We need to get to that facility." Chris and Cybil stood around the map, and Heather shook her head. Chris was so concerned with the stupid facility, even with all the other stuff that happened. He must realize that Umbrella probably had nothing to do with what was going on in Silent Hill.

"Well, if I remember correctly, we could try to keep going north until we reach a way out? That probably won't work though… Silent Hill hates it when you try and get away." Heather yanked on the other door for the gift shop and it opened. "Also, there should be an entrance/exit just out here. Maybe it'll be open?"

Everyone stared at her, and she shrugged. "What? I ended up spending a lot of time in here last time, so I know the exits. Shall we?"

They all cautiously left the shop, propping the door open just in case, and walked towards the gate. Hope built as they got closer and saw it wasn't blocked off, but it died when they discovered a series of locks keeping it closed.

"Shit. I guess we should have expected a puzzle. Silent Hill loves a puzzle." Heather said, looking despondent.

"Uh, a question Cheryl. Why the heck do you keep talking like Silent Hill is a person? It's just a town. It can't be doing this on purpose…can it?" Claire asked, while Barry and Lisa pulled a piece of paper off the gate and looked it over.

"No, Silent Hill is as much a player in this bazaar play as you or I. The town lured people in long before the cult settled here; they just made it more powerful."

"Here, this was on the gate. This riddle…it's probably giving us hints to where the keys are. I'll read it out." Barry held up the paper, and started reading. " '1.) I killed you once tried to twice now let's see if I can do it thrice. 2.) We lost our shoes you brought them back now we need our heads or it will be yours we'll hack. 3.) A lonely death in a lonely house the lonely key contained in a giant mouse. 4.) Flip n fly twist n turn be careful or the tea you'll burn. 5.) Round and round the horses roam come and bring our lost one home and perhaps we'll lead you home.' "

The group stood in silence, trying to think of what it meant.

"I have no clue what any of that means." Cybil said, finally.

"I have an idea, actually. That first one, that's the roller coaster. I had a dream about this place before I got her, and I was hit by the roller coaster. When I came here later, I made sure to shut it off before walking on the track, so maybe that's what it means?" Heather offered.

"That makes sense. It looks like it applies to you more so than us, seeing as you were here before. Do you recognize any of this, Cybil? Douglas?" Rebecca asked as Barry handed Heather the paper.

"I…don't really remember much about this place, actually. I wasn't in my right mind when I was in here, so I'm not your best bet." Cybil said, wincing. "I agree that the marry-go-round is not the best thing though, Cheryl."

"And I didn't get a chance to do much here either. I got near the tea-cup ride before running into Claudia. She broke my leg, and I couldn't do much but get on a bench and wait for Cheryl. So I'm not much help either." Douglas shrugged, apologetic.

"Hm, okay, well then we'll follow your lead, Cheryl. Just be careful, we can't afford for you to get hurt again." The group started moving again, the roller coaster not too far off. As they climbed the stairs to the entrance of the ride, a Pendulum appeared, but was put down before it could do much damage.

"There should be more monsters, being so dark, but I think they're too weary of me to attack. So if we split up, we should be careful, because they'll probably attack the group I'm not with." Heather said, pushing the gate open. "Here we are."

The ride was obviously in disrepair, but it was still working, as a series of cars zoomed by.

"…First step is turning it off, I'm assuming?" Lisa said, moving to the operating booth door.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best." Jill said, going with Lisa.

"What's that in the car there?" Claire asked, squinting. "It looks kinda like a…head, but I can't tell. How do we get that over here?"

"We might have to run the machine to get it to this side." Barry said, before poking his head into the booth with Lisa and Jill. "What's it like in here?"

"There's lots of switches, and another note. 'Lever one stops it all, lever two starts it all, lever three affects whether or not the cars go forwards or backwards, lever four moves a specific car four spaces either way, and lever five isn't labeled'. Should we test them out?" Lisa asked, holding the paper.

"May as well. Pull lever four-" Chris said. "-For car…three. Let's try and get it over on this side."

As Jill and Lisa fiddled with the levers, car three zoomed backwards, and when Heather saw it coming over the crest of the hill, reaching where they were, she yelled for them to stop with the lever.

"Why?" Jill said, although she did put the lever back in the right position.

"Because otherwise it'll zoom right past us and we'll have to start again." The row of cars hit the stop barrier which had been put up, and Heather moved in to look at the head in the front seat. She picked it up while everyone else looked in the other cars.

'My mother-in-law was an ogre and tried to eat me and my children. We escaped and lived in the forest until my king found me again. Who am I?'

The note on the bottom confused Heather, but she figured having nine people with her this time would mean someone would have an idea for the answer.

"Was this the only thing in there?" She asked, holding up the head.

"Yeah, looks like it. What should we do now?" Douglas asked.

"Well, I'm assuming that there are at least two more cars on this track, so do we wanna try moving them over here?" Cybil poked her head in, and told Lisa and Jill to try using lever four to move car one.

"I don't think that's going to work. It won't shift to that number. Here, let me try the others." Jill then attempted to use the lever to control the other three cars (as four were numbered on the panel) but was only able to move car four.

"Okay, let us know when car 4 reaches that hill, okay?" Lisa said, leaning out of the shack.

Douglas nodded, and they waited for it to show up. After several minutes, Cybil also went into the booth.

"Here, try reversing lever three. The cars haven't shown up yet, so they could be stuck."

After reversing the direction of the car and placing the fourth lever back to make it move again, car four shot out of the darkness, and almost went over the top of the hill when Jill shut it off. It rolled down to the bottom, hitting a barrier, and half the group moved onto the stable part of the tracks to search the cars.

Nothing but another head was found, this one with a different riddle on the bottom.

'I married the prince, and then killed my evil step-mother by making her dance to death in red-hot iron shoes. Who am I?'

"Uhg, these notes sure are creepy…" Claire was put in charge of holding the heads, despite her complaints, and Jill and Lisa fiddled with the levers some more. The managed to stop car two by using lever two, which they searched and were awarded with another head.

'My evil step-mother and sisters were punished for trying to take my place. Not only did the sisters suffer from foot mutilation, but the birds took special care to tear out all three pairs of eyeballs. Who am I?'

"...Okay, that is just too creepy." Claire took the other head with some obvious distaste, now holding all three as everyone else tried to figure out the right combination to stop the final runaway car.

Finally, after a good fifteen minutes or fighting with the controls, the car came to a stop. Everyone walked over to it, cautious, and as Heather lent to pick up the first key, something spit a glob of acid at Jill.

She was lucky enough to dodge most of it, but a small amount hit her arm, and as Barry took it out, Lisa and Rebecca got to work.

"Shit! What the fuck is that thing?" Jill swore as Rebecca treated what was turning into a chemical burn.

"I have no idea. I've never seen that before." Heather said, examining the corpse. It looked like it was covered in a rubbery film, with a gaping hole in its chest and no arms. "Are you ok, Jill?"

"Yeah, I should be fine. Not going to be doing much with this arm though. Isn't there a way to cover this up?" She asked, but Rebecca shook her head.

"We can't cover any kind of burn. It'll make it worse."

"Right can someone else take these creepy head now?!" Claire finally yelled, shaking one of them in Chris's face. "Because I'm not holding them anymore! I think this one just started crying blood…" she shoved the three into Cybil's arms and started wiping her hands on her pants. "Yuck."

"Crying blood? Oh, no it's just the paint on the face. The certainly look creepy though…" Cybil adjusted her grip, as everyone started following Heather.

"Ok, so the next clue, I think, has to do with some kind of fairy tale display. Follow me, I'm pretty sure it's over here." The group jogged with Heather, not wanting any more nasty surprises after what happened to Jill.

They reached the display area, but once Heather stepped out onto the path, the gate slammed shut, separating the group from her.

"I can't get it open!" Claire yanked on the thin metal, but it didn't have any give. "God, now I hate amusement parks. Thanks a lot, Silent Hill!"

Just as Claire said that, a mechanical noise sounded.

"What was that?" Rebecca asked, but Heather shrugged.

"I don't know, but I think we should do this puzzle fast. The clue said that if we didn't give back the heads, that they'd take ours. Quick-" Heather went and stood by the Snow White statue. "Which one sounds like Snow White? Read the riddle out."

"Uh," Cybil passed a head to Douglas and Chris and everyone looked at the riddles.

"Oh! The red hot shoes, that's Snow White!" Jill tossed the Snow White head to Heather, and she screwed it back into place.

"Ok, good. Next is Sleeping Beauty. Come on guys, hit me!" The mechanical noise grew louder, and everyone tensed at the sound of an axe hitting the ground.

"It can't be this one," Lisa said, taking the head with blond hair. "The riddle mentions two step-sisters, and Sleeping Beauty didn't even have those!"

Cybil tossed Heather the other head, and right as she had it screwed on, the source of the noise revealed itself.

It was a mechanical woodsman, obviously meant to go along with a red riding hood, but the axe it was carrying was real and deadly. Heather jumped back as it swung at her, and grabbed the last head.

"So I hope to god that this head goes here!" She yelled, placing the head on the stand, but running away to draw the axe man's attention. Once it had moved away from the statue enough, Heather darted back in, and screwed the head on.

"Watch out!" Heather spun and fell, kicking her legs out and causing the mechanical menace to topple backwards instead of slicing her head open with the axe. She lay there, panting, as the gate opened and everyone ran in.

"Are you okay?" Lisa asked, helping her up.

"Oh, yeah, startled. I just wasn't expecting that to be behind me." Heather brushed herself off, before taking the axe. "Here, you have no weapon, and this axe should work. Now where is that key?"

The group poked around, until Chris noticed a treasure chest hidden in the bushes.

"Over here! This looks open…" The nine gathered around as he opened it, pulling out the key, a hunk of metal cheese, and a wallet.

Ok, I get the key, but the cheese and wallet?" Heather too the wallet and opened it before paling.

"Douglas, I think this is for you." She passed the wallet over to him, and he turned a shade of grey.

"Who…God, how would this have even got here? Jesus…." Douglas ran a hand over his face, and shoved the wallet in his pocket.

"What's wrong? What's wrong with the wallet?" Barry asked, curious.

"It-it's my sons….or it was his. He died, years ago." Douglas replied.

"What happened to him?" Rebecca asked, taking the fake cheese.

"The stupid kid tried to rob a bank. Got himself all shot up." Douglas then fell silent, the group now slightly uncomfortable.

Finally, Heather spoke up. "Come on, guys, let's keep going. I want to get out of here, fast."

They then moved along the path, only to encounter two dog shaped enemies.

"Shit! Watch out, these guys are fast!" Heather drew her sword, and ran at one of them, while everyone else shot at the other. She stabbed the end into its head, and it collapsed, bleeding on the fake grass.

"I'm getting sick of this place, come on, let's get going." Chris stomped ahead of Heather, who took the time to make a face at his back.

"Do you even know where we're supposed to go next?" Cybil asked, and Chris turned and motioned at the group.

"Well I would if we'd keep moving. Come on!"

Heather just rolled her eyes and started walking. "It sounds like the haunted house is next. We just have to be careful. There's a fake ceiling that drops, with spikes, and hopefully the red mist is gone."

Everybody started moving, and reached the haunted house in no time.

"What's the riddle for here, then?" Chris asked.

"Uh, something about a giant mouse? I'm assuming that's why we got this." Rebecca pulled out the metal cheese.

"…I don't really know what to expect anymore. This place is just way too weird." Claire shook her head. "I thought Raccoon, and everything Umbrella did and was, was crazy, but this is almost too much."

"Yeah, this place can defiantly get to you. But we need to continue if we want to get out of here. Do you want to stay outside?" Heather asked.

"…No, it's okay." Claire strode forward, yanking the door open.

They all went in, and noticed a large mouse trap on the floor.

"Do we put the cheese there?" Rebecca asked, before going ahead and putting it there anyways.

It clicked, and then the group turned, a loud squeaking noise catching their attention.

And looked up at a giant mouse.

"…I think we should run now." The group then split, as the mouse attacked

\--

"Well, that one sure was, uh, interesting." The group walked out of the Haunted house, Claire and Barry splattered with…something, but triumphant.

"And surprisingly easy. I don't see why it had to explode though." The group stopped, giving Claire and Barry a chance to try and clean off. "What's up with the thermometer?"

"Obviously it's for the next puzzle. Let's go to the tea-cup ride, I have a feeling that's where we're supposed to go next." Heather once again took the lead, and reached the ride safely, no monster jumping out at them.

"So this is the next puzzle? The riddle says something about making tea, so maybe we have to do something with that?" Jill pointed to a giant tea pot, which was balanced over the ride.

"God, I hope not…" Chris took a step towards the ride and triggered something. The ride started to spin, and as everyone tried to step away, the board-walk seemed to split, and dumped Chris, Heather, Lisa, and Rebecca on to the ride.

"Are you guys okay!?" Jill yelled as the ride spun them away.

"We're fine! Just figure out what's up with this riddle before I get sick." Rebecca said, before groaning, covering her mouth, and rolling face down.

The others not on the ride ran over to the giant tea pot, and found a description of the puzzle, which told them that they needed to man several valves to make sure the tea didn't 'get to hot'. They found out why after a small splash of hot water flew out, slightly scalding those on the ride.

"You guys have to be more careful!" Jill shouted. "Otherwise we'll all be laid up after you boil us!"

Eventually they managed to figure out the puzzle, and this time when the tea pot tipped, all that fell out was the key and a horse skull.

The four slightly cooked people climbed out of the ride, and Chris handed Cybil the skull.

"Now where do we go? Cybil asked, holding onto a horse's skull.

"The marry-go-round." Jill said, holding the riddle paper. "I'm assuming when we get there, we have to put this on a horse."

They made their way to the marry-go-round, but once again, as Heather stepped onto the ride, the gate shut, keeping anyone else from following again.

"Great, now what? Cybil asked, stuck on the ride with Heather.

"I guess we just go and find where this head goes. You guys will be okay?" Heather asked, before tossing her backpack to Claire.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Lisa waved, and Heather and Cybil started looking for the horse with the missing head. It was tucked away in the back of the ride, and after putting the skull on it, the ride started to move.

"What the hell!?" Chris and Douglas watched as the ride picked up speed, but thankfully it didn't go anywhere. They were having a hard time seeing Heather or Cybil, it was spinning so fast.

"You can't take the key. You have to stay, to birth our god." Claudia was sitting on one of the horses, looking down at Heather with dead eyes.

"Claudia, I will never do such a thing! Your paradise is false, and I won't let you try this again." Heather tried to stand, the ride moving at such a speed that both her and Cybil were pressed into the floor, but was unable to. Trying to draw a weapon, both her sword and gun, proved to be fruitless, and Heather found herself trapped. "Claudia…"

"Do not worry, Heather. Once we take you to our church and place you in the deep sleep of our lady, it will not matter who you are now. Come! Kill this interloper and take our lady home!"

With a groan, three Missionaries moved into view, heading for Cybil.

"Oh god, Cheryl, help!" Cybil started the struggle, also unable to draw her weapon, but she was more successful on trying to move away. She rolled over, and started crawling for Heather.

"Oh, but where are you trying to go?" Claudia asked, pointing at Cybil. "This one, kill her. Come, my Missionaries!"

The Missionaries picked up speed, and one of the shot forward, stabbing its blades into Cybil's legs and pinning her to the deck.

"Oh god oh God holy fuck Cheryl you have to help me please!" Cybil started to swear and sob, still trying to drag herself away from the monsters.

"Claudia! Stop! Stop this now!" Heather yelled, flashes of anger and panic moving through her.

Claudia ignored her though, cackling as the second Missionary moved to stab Cybil, this time in the torso.

"NO!" Heather shouted, and everything stopped.


	9. Chapter 9

"…"

Everything seemed to stop, the marry-go-round slowing almost to a halt, and the Missionaries stalling.

"What did you do?" Claudia asked. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"Leave."

The Missionaries snapped to attention, dropped their weapons, and left, leaving Cybil crying in relief and Claudia horribly confused.

"How? They were mine to command, how dare you send them away?!" Claudia advanced on Heather, who had sat up, but still with her head down.

\--

"What's going on?" Jill whispered to Douglas, who shrugged.

"…That's not Cheryl anymore." Lisa said, grabbing Chris's arm. "That's not her."

"What do you mean?" Chris asked.

"Watch, you'll see." Lisa shook her head, and stepped away. "This is not our fight."

\--

Everyone took note of Lisa, and backed away, weapons still out in case the monstrosities Heather, or not-Heather, had sent away returned.

Claudia reached out, to grab at Heather, but Heather grabbed Claudia instead.

"You should not have done this, Claudia. We need to stop this foolishness, all this talk of a 'God'. That will never come to fruition, I will not let it." Claudia cried out as Heather squeezed her hand, pulling herself up.

Standing, she seemed to undergo a transformation, like there was a shadow of another person standing over her. Her hair darkened as she looked up, her eyes clouded with anger.

"What are you?!" Claudia whimpered as Heather flung her hand away, cradling it close.

"Claudia…Remember when we promised to never join our parents? Remember how we said we would leave here?" Heather took a step towards Claudia, who cried out, scared.

"Alessa!" Claudia backed away, summoning more of her monsters to try and take down Heather but to no avail. She merely turned to the Closers, to the Pendulums that approached and they fled.

Outraged, Claudia continued to send her pawns in, trying to hurt Heather, to hurt Cybil, but Alessa's spirit was having none of it.

"How dare you, Claudia! Everything I have done to get away, to ignore this twisted destiny, and yet you drag me back, you and that Order. This is too much. There will be no more kindness from me." Alessa/Heather waved her hand to the side, and several of the things Claudia had summoned to help her walked out, growling.

"No! Those were mine to command!" Claudia snarled, now over her fear of her friend of old. She grasped one of the Missionaries dropped weapons and ran forward.

"Claudia, what are you doing? You would never be able to hurt me with those." Alessa/Heather and the monsters took a step forward, rage and condensation on her face.

"No… But her, that pitiful woman I can kill." As Claudia moved to strike at Cybil, Alessa/Heather moved faster, drawing her sword and rushing at her. The sword and shears clanged against each other, Claudia bouncing back with a cry of anger and Alessa/Heather placed herself in front of Cybil.

"I will not let you take this one. She is mine to protect and she has protected me. This town will not claim her as one of their dead." Alessa/Heather and Claudia crossed their blades again and again, each time Claudia was pushed further back from Cybil, and Alessa/Heather and her monstrosities advanced.

Finally, Claudia was standing at the edge of the ride, the shears dragging on the floor, enraged. She began to scream at Alessa/Heather, about her paradise, why wouldn't she understand, she would regret this one day. Finally, Alessa's spirit seemed to have enough, and sprang forwards, sword raised to impale Claudia. With a loud cry, Claudia fell as Heather struck her, he last words obstructed by the keening noises the monsters were making.

Alessa/Heather knelt over Claudia's prone body, grasping the sword that had gone through Claudia, pinning her as she died. Finally, Alessa/Heather removed her sword, putting it back into its sheath, and walked over to Cybil. The monsters that were standing behind Alessa/Heather dispersed as Valtiel dropped from the top of the ride to drag Claudia's body away.

Alessa/Heather then walked to the middle of the ride, where Cybil was still laying, blood leaking from her mutilated legs. Alessa/Heather knelt by Cybil's legs, running her hands lightly over her wounds before lifting Cybil's legs into her lap. She then pressed her hands down hard on them, Cybil cried out as Alessa/Heather began to briskly rub them, before suddenly stopping, dropping Cybil's legs, and standing.

"What did…the pain is gone…?" Cybil grasped Heathers offered hand, and stood, wobbly.

Heather then raised her hands to Cybil's face, before kissing her on the cheek. "You helped him free me. And thus my debt is paid. Thank you for watching over her." Her eyes then closed, and Heather fell to the floor of the marry-go-round.

Cybil just stared, before turning to the others and weakly saying, "Help?"

It took some time for Heather to wake up again, but the others took that time to explore around. They had gathered some ammo, and found the key Claudia had on her, and were eating granola bars when Heather woke up.

"Oh lord…" Was their only warning, before she ran for the nearest garbage can, retching. Heather gripped the trash can tightly and Lisa made her way over to her, looking back at everyone else.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and Heather shook her head.

"I feel horrible…what happened? I only really remember Claudia…and she was trying to kill Cybil? She asked, unsure.

"Well, Alessa came out, and took out Claudia. Then she somewhat healed Cybil. The pain is dulled, and the holes are closed, but there is still damage. She should be fine though, and she'll be able to get fixed up once you're done here. We've got her a cane someone left behind, and she's insisting on coming with us. She'll be fine."

Heather shook her head. She couldn't believe that Alessa had taken her over like that. Still, she sighed with relief that Cybil would be okay, and stood on shaky legs. Lisa helped her back over to the others, who were all watching her.

They all stood in uncomfortable silence, the fog rolling through the park, before Chris stepped forward.

"Can we trust you?"

Heather considered his question. Alessa had gotten out, taken over, but the only one hurt by her was Claudia, so she believed that Alessa would do what was needed.

"Yes, you can." Heather stood herself up straight, pulling away from Lisa.

"Good. Can you continue? It's getting close to evening, and we don't want to be here over night." Chris asked, and Heather looked down at her watch, startled to see that it was a quarter to six.

Yeah, let's get going then. Have you guys unlocked the gate yet?" Heather asked, but everyone shook their heads.

"You have the other keys, and we didn't want to bother you…" Rebecca said, and Heather nodded.

"Ah, well, let's go. I agree with not wanting to hang out here in the dark either." She took point, and everyone followed her. They could hear the monsters on the sidelines, her radio buzzing, but nothing attacked the group.

"They're more scared of you now. Hell, I think Lisa's even scared of you now." Jill said, as they made their way to the gate. Stepping through the gift shop, the chandler started to fall, startling all of them, but when nothing stepped out to attack them, they moved on. They reached the gate, and slammed the keys into the locks, the bars falling off the gate with a clang,

"Ready?" Chris asked, as him and Barry started to push open the gate. At everyone's nods, they pushed the gate open and moved out into the street.

"Wait…" Everyone was out, but Heather and Lisa were both confused. "Who has the maps?"

Chris and Douglas pulled them out, and they all crowded around to look at them.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked. "We did get out of that creepy park, right?"

"Yeah, we did, but…" Heather looked at the maps, a frown on her face. "The park is here though, right?" She pointed on the map where the park was outlined in pink.

"Yeah…" Chris said.

"But, that signpost over there says we're right here." Heather pulled another map over, pointing at a Sanders street on the map. "See? And Neely's Bar is over there too. How did we manage to get from there to here?"

As everyone was puzzling out the maps, Heathers radio started spewing static. They all stopped and started looking around; trying to find what was causing the static to start, when a screeching made everyone pale.

"Is that…" Everyone backed away from where the noise seemed to have come from, and Lisa nodded.

"I bet that's the Executioner. We should go. Now."

Everyone started to slowly move away, but when a door flew out into the street with a crash they sped up. When the Executioner stepped out into the street, they all bolted.

"Oh shit!" It was hard to figure out who was swearing, but everyone agreed. Running through the streets, dodging blockades, and jumping holes, they soon found their way seemingly blocked.

Heather's radio had stopped blaring though, and they calmed down enough to realize that they were standing in front of a memorial park and the Executioner was no long behind them.

"What's this place?" Jill asked while everyone else was catching their breath.

"I don't care, so long as I can sit down. My legs are killing me…" Cybil hobbled over to a bench, and sunk down. "Whatever Alessa did is wearing off and I'm not sure if I can really continue."

"Sorry…"Heather said, a feeling of sadness running through her.

"Oh no, it's not your fault." Cybil waved Heather away, like she was waving away how she was feeling. "Anyways, let's get going. I don't wanna be here if that thing comes back."

Douglas helped Cybil up, and the group moved into the memorial park. Walking through the first little part, they could here noises from up ahead.

"What do you think that it?" Claire asked Rebecca, who shrugged.

"I'm not sure…sounds human though. I guess we'll just have to get closer."

As they moved closer, they were able to pick up some of the conversation.

"…where…been here before…get…"

"But how…left ages…okay?"

"Well, if those are people, and not the ones that Claudia person were talking about, then maybe they can help us." Jill said, moving up in front of the group. "Come on, let's find them."

Weary, but happy, the group moved faster, hoping that the presence of people meant there were no monsters. As they reached the front of the park, where it over looked the lake, they could see two people sitting near a statue.

"Hey!" Heather and Jill moved out in front, approaching the two people. "Are you guys okay?"

The one person, a man, shot up and stood in front of the other, his hand on a gun. "It depends. Who are you?"

"My name is Cheryl, this is Jill, and our friends are back there." She pointed over to where Cybil and Rebecca were waving. "Come on, it's too dangerous out here. Do you want to come with us? It'd be safer."

The man took some time to think about their offer, before nodding. "My name is James, and this is Laura." A young girl moved out from behind him, and grabbed his hand. "Do you guys know how to get out of here? We've been trying for…a long time."

"We keep goin in circles." Laura said, her face grave. "We keep ending up here…I don't wanna be here anymore…" She buried her face into James's side, and he picked her up.

"Well, we aren't leaving quite yet, but come with us. We'll make sure you guys stay safe." Jill said, a small smile on her face.

"Okay…" James nodded, and walked with them back towards the rest of the group. As they grew closer, they could see that Cybil wasn't in good shape.

"Are you okay?" Heather asked first, and Cybil shook her head.

"I don't think I'll be able to help you guys anymore. Douglas mentioned a motel room earlier. Do you guys think you could help me get there? Because I think I'm just going to slow you down if I stay with you." Cybil was leaning heavily on her re-purposed cane, in obvious pain.

"A motel?" James asked, startling them all. "Well, if you do that, do you think Laura could stay with her then? I don't want anything happening to her."

"Well," Chris started, "It depends where this motel is. If it's too far off our path then I think we'll have to skip it."

Everyone stared at him, before Rebecca shook her head. "Where is the hotel? We can stop there before moving on. And I think it'd be a good idea if…Laura, was it? If Laura stays with Cybil. It would be safer, with that thing chasing us."

"But-" Chris tried to talk, but both Jill and Barry waved him away.

"My name is Claire, sweetie. This is Rebecca, Barry, Douglas, Cybil, and my big dopey brother Chris." Claire smiled at Laura, while pointing to each person in the group.

"…Hi. I'm Laura. Are we going to get out of here?" The little girl asked, looking up at Claire.

"Oh, I certainly hope so!" She replied, a big smile on her face, before turning to Chris. "Come on, Bro, let's get to that motel."

Chris just sighed, and pulled out a map. "So, where is this motel?"

"There." Douglas jabbed his finger into the map. The motel was close by, and everyone set out to move. They had exited the park, noticed that their way was no longer blocked, but started to run after hearing the scraping noise that signified the Executioner.

"God, I wish that guy would go away!" Douglas said, holding Cybil up as they ran.

"Trust me, he doesn't really ever stop. I thought they were dead, though." James said with a nervous laugh, Laura holding on for dear life.

"They were dead? There's more than one of these guys?" Barry said, dismayingly. "Great."

The group turned a corner, and slid to a stop. They could no longer hear the scraping noise, and Heather's radio was silent, so they took a quick break to catch their breath.

"Wait, so you dealt with that thing? How did you kill it?" Chris asked.

"Well," James let Laura down, but she still stayed close by him. "I didn't actually kill it, them. They actually killed themselves. Impaled themselves on their spears. I don't know why that one is back though."

Heather looked at Douglas, but didn't say anything yet. She didn't want to scare the little girl. She shook her head, to tell everyone else not to mention anything, and started walking.

"The motel should just be over here…" Heather and Jill again jogged ahead to check out the area, finding the motel in the middle of the block, surprisingly free of enemies.

"It's up here guys!" Jill called back to the group, shifting in place.

Everyone caught up, glad that there weren't any holes or monsters to separate them.

"So, where to now? You said you have a key for a room?" Chris asked, annoyed with the fact that everyone had overruled his decision to keep going.

"Yeah. Room 106. It's just over there." Douglas walked to the room, trying the key and opening the door. The room was empty, obviously no one was staying there, and Cybil hobbled in, flopping down on the bed.

"Ah, this is much better. I vote we make this our base of operations." She sighed, and swung herself further onto the bed.

Laura moved to the chair in the corner and sat. "I'm staying here, right James? And you'll come back?" She drew her legs up to her chest and looked at James.

He knelt, and smiled at her. "I promise."

The rest of the group looked over the room and bathroom, securing the place before getting ready to leave. They also left anything they didn't think they'd need, Heather leaving most of her Aglaophotis, while Rebecca left some of their medical supplies behind for Cybil.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Heather asked Cybil, who just nodded from where she was propped up, pillows under her head.

"I'll be fine. I'm sure Laura and I will find some way to occupy ourselves." Cybil smiled at Laura, who was still sitting on the chair.

"I'm staying too."

Everyone turned, looking at Claire. She was standing near the bathroom, looking nervous.

"Why." Chris asked, looking annoyed.

"Because this place is just too freaky. All the stuff we've seen, I just…can't keep going. It's too much for me." She looked embarrassed but resolute.

"Fine. With the people we have now, we should be good. Be careful though." Chris rested his hand on Claire's shoulder, talking quietly to her, before waving everyone out of the motel room.

Once they were outside again, Chris turned to James.

"Okay," Chris started, "Who are you, how did you get here, and what do you know about this place?"

Before he could answer though, Heather interrupted with a question of her own. "Did you come here yourself, or did the town drag you here?"

James looked conflicted, unable to decide what question, before finally sighing. "It was a bit of both. Guilt drove me here, but the town certainly helped me along." He shook his head, like he was trying to erase unpleasant memories. "Anyways, my name is James, I came here looking for my wife, but I couldn't find her. I found Laura though." He paused again.

"I don't really know much about this place, actually. It was my wife's 'special place'. We actually spent our honey-moon here. All I know is that the monsters here have stopped chasing me since those triangle headed things died. But then again, it sounds like there's another one running around." He shook his head again. "Anyways, now I have a question for you guys. Why are you here?"

"We're here to look into the old Umbrella plant. Our intel said it'd been deserted for a while, but we're still looking into it." Barry answered.

"Oh…Well do you guys mind if I come with you? I don't know much about that Umbrella plant, but I can help." James seemed to not have noticed that he was walking with them anyways, and Jill just laughed.

"Yeah, you can come. I mean, we're about three blocks from the motel already, and I doubt Chris is going to be turning back to drop you off. What weapons do you have?"

As James relayed what he had on him (a handgun, an old busted pipe, a flashlight, and a broken radio, just like Heather), they made their way through the streets, more cautious after seeing the Executioner for a second time.

"Oh!" Lisa exclaimed, interrupting James's questions about Umbrella.

"What is it?" Chris asked, wearily.

"I completely forgot, but Kauffman's still out there. He shouldn't be much of an issue, but he could still do some damage." Lisa bit at her lip, but Jill waved off her concern.

"If he tried anything, we can deal with him. He may be dead-(James looked confused and opened his mouth to ask, but Barry shushed him) - but that doesn't mean we can't hurt him if we need to. He did feel pretty solid when I bumped into him back at the hospital."

Satisfied that the issue of Kauffman was put to rest, the group continued moving wile now asking James about his encounters with the Executioner.

"Well, I first ran into it in an apartment building, lord knows why. I don't know much about it, but this much I do know. It chases guilty people."

This made everyone pause.

"What sort of guilt did you harbor then?" Rebecca asked, trying to gauge the intensity of the feelings the monstrosity could sense.

James was silent for some time before replying. "I…wasn't entirely faithful to my wife. After she died, I came here to get away, but the town took me in."

They continued to walk, ducking through fences and jumping over cracks, before Barry suddenly spoke up.

"James, I thought you said you came here to find your wife."

James looked over, confused. "Yes, I did."

"But," Barry continued, "You just said that your wife died. Did she die here then?"

"No…no, she didn't. She actually died three years prior to me coming here. I was moving on, but then I received a letter…from her. I thought it was ridiculous, but I wanted to believe that there was some way for her to be here, so I came. I suppose that was what this town wanted. It's almost like a person, really." James scratched at his head, looking away.

"That's just what Cheryl said too, about this place. Do you two really think it has a mind of its own?" Chris asked.

"Yes. Otherwise it wouldn't lure people here in the first place." James shrugged, stepped off the curb, and almost fell into a crater.

Luckily for him, Barry was a tad more observant, and grabbed the back of his shirt before he fell into the deep hole.

"Oh." James started wide-eyed at his almost doom, before stepping back further onto the sidewalk. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. You have to pay more attention to the surroundings though." Then Barry turned to Chris, who was poking around trying to find another way. "Are we blocked off again?"

"Yeah…. I don't even see a way in any of these building, and look at where we came from." Chris pointed at a tall chain-link fence that blocked their path.

"Really?" Heather asked, annoyed. "I'm getting sick of this shit." She sighed and sat on the sidewalk, closing her eyes. "I just wish we could get to this Umbrella plant so you guys can look at it and we can go home. I've had enough of this place. What are we near?"

The map and street signs showed that they were now on the east side of town, coming up to a medium sized prison.

"Do you guys know anything about this prison?" James asked. "I didn't see it here when I first showed up."

"Really?" Rebecca asked, skeptical. "That there is Pale-Vale Minimal Security Psychiatric Prison. It's a minimum security psychiatric prison, three floors, usually was used to hold prisoners who'd committed lesser crimes and those with mental issues. It opened three years ago…When did you get here? How long have you been wandering around?"

"I don't know, what year is it?" The looks everyone gave him when they realized he wasn't joking made him explain further. "I came here in 2004, found Laura, and really, it honestly feels like we've been trying to find a way out for eons."

"James, it's 2018. That means you two have been here for 14 years. How is that possible? How are you alive?" Rebecca looked at James, astonished.

Douglas moved over and crouched next to Heather. "That man…I'm sure he's the one I came here to look for, the first time. He's not telling the complete truth."

"Yeah," said Heather, "but then again, neither are we. If it becomes an issue, we'll address it, but for now let's keep quiet about this."

As Rebecca continued to interrogate James about how he and Laura managed to survive for around 14 years without food and sleep, Douglas and Barry teamed up to see if they could break any doors down.

"I thought we checked those already?" Jill called to them as she tried to pull herself up over the chain-link fence.

"Yeah, but we may as while check again. This place messes with our heads, so we should double check." Barry yanked on a doorknob, but the door held. "How the fuck are we going to get out of here?"

"I have no idea." Heather said, flopping onto her back. Hopefully they weren't stuck. She hated being stuck.

What about that?" Chris asked, pointing over the gap to a crane holding several metal girders. "If we can figure out a way to knock those down, we could use them as a bridge."

"Yeah," Jill hopped down off the fence. "But how the hell are we going to get to it? I mean, we could try and shoot the chain holding the girders, but there's no way we could realistically expect to break that."

"Well…" Rebecca stood and fidgeted. "I have an idea."

"Okay, let's hear it." Chris turned to her, and Douglas and Barry stopped banging on doors.

"Well, since I'm younger, and I weigh less, I think if I ran and one of you tossed me, I could jump over the gap, and lower the crane." Rebecca could see the displeased look on Chris' face, but before she even had a chance to argue her case, Jill spoke up.

"Becca has a good point. If we tossed her over, it'd definitely be easier to get across. And we wouldn't be wasting time or ammo trying to get that down from here." Rebecca shot Jill a grateful look, before holstering her handgun.

"I don't like it; can we put that down on the record?" Chris said, scowling. He got into position anyways, and Rebecca steeled herself before running at him. He launched her into the air, and she hit the ground on the other side with an oof.

"Are you okay?" Heather called over, standing.

"I'm fine! I'm going to try and get those girders down now; you guys should get away from the edge." They watched as Rebecca climbed into the crane operators' box and began to fiddle with the controls. She then cursed.

"This is going to take a bit. I think I need to look at the engine. Or I'll have to scale the arm the release the girders manually." Rebecca made a frustrated noise and moved to the front of the machine.

She lifted the hood and started to fiddle with the engine when Heather and James' radios both went off.

"Look out Rebecca!" James yelled over the gap, as several Numb-Bodies moved towards her.

"Shit, I don't think she can hear you." Douglas drew the rifle Heather had found, and took aim.

He shot at the monstrosities, and Rebecca couldn't not hear that. She jumped away, noticed the pink and purple veiny things coming towards her, and hopped up into the cab of the crane.

"Shit, they're heading right for her." Chris pulled out his handgun and helped Douglas keep them away from Rebecca.

There was a break, and Rebecca poked her head out of the cab, shouting over to the group. "I can't get it working! I'm going to have to climb up."

"Okay! We'll cover you!" Heather yelled back, and Rebecca scuttled up on top of the cab. As she climbed, the rest of them, minus Lisa, shot at the monsters that appeared. Finally, Rebecca reached the manual release control, and began to work at opening it.

The sky began to darken a little, which stalled Rebecca, but when the sirens didn't start blaring, so she continued, ignoring the keening of monsters below her.

"I got it! Watch out!"

The girders crashed to the ground, some falling into the crater, but most of them landed over the gap. The crashing seemed to scare off the monsters, and Heather noted that, despite Rebecca creating a bridge, the sky didn't brighten, didn't clear up.

The all crossed over to Rebecca, and after checking out the area on the other side of the make-shift bridge, they continued on their way.

"So James," Heather dropped back to where he was walking. "Just so you know, we have an idea of how the Executioner came back. We ran into someone I'd met here when I was here last time, and she said that someone had resurrected her, the Executioner, the 'Mother of our Lady', and 'The Deceiver'. Do you know anything about the last one? I have an idea for the Mother, but the Deceiver, we have no idea."

"You were here before? And you came back?" James gave her a disbelieving look.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't let them go without a guide who'd been here before. They'd get themselves killed." Heather jerked her head at Jill, and Jill laughed. "Anyways, do you have a clue?"

"Well…" James seemed to mull it over. "I did encounter someone here, who looked like my wife. She, or it, could be the Deceiver. But I honestly have no idea. Sorry."

"Oh, there's no issue-" Heather was about to continue talking to James to ask him about his wife's doppelgänger, when Chris called them to a halt.

"We're being lead somewhere again. Look at these streets, we're being funneled again. Do you think we're going to run into another resurrected person?"

"Probably. But the question is which one?" Lisa asked.

"I have no idea. But I have a clue of where we're going. You know that Prison Becca mentioned?" Jill walked out a little further, before calling for everyone to keep moving. "It's up here."

It didn't take long for the group to find themselves at the end of the trail, staring up at an imposing building.

"Welcome to Pale-Vale Minimal Security Psychiatric Prison," Rebecca said humuorlessly, as she opened the door and everyone entered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...kinda made up a year for the story, 2018, because I have no bloody clue how to mesh the games together and have a good sense of time.  
> So I kinda made up a number


	10. Chapter 10

Pale-Vale Minimum Security Psychiatric Prison was gloomy, but open, so everyone stepped inside. The walls and floors were intact, but crumbling, and Heather darted forward, noticing several copies of a map on a bench. She handed a few to Douglas, and they started handing them out.

"Jesus, look at this dump. This opened 3 years ago?" Chris accepted a copy of the map, turning to Rebecca.

"Well, that's what my info says, but this place looks like it's been destroyed." Rebecca also took a map, folding it and placing it in her pack.

"Yeah, well, Silent Hill can be deceiving. So now what do we do? Move further inside?" Heather asked, unfolding her copy of the map. Scanning it over, she could see three floors and a basement, and after a closer look could see there wasn't a back door, but a sewer access in the basement lead out of the building. She pointed it out to Chris, who nodded thoughtfully.

"It doesn't look like there's a back door, but that sewer access…" Jill scrunched her face up at Chris's suggestion, obviously not liking his idea of escaping through the sewers.

"Well, it seems like that's our only option, so that's what we'll have to do." Chris said, noticing Jill's face, before walking forward and opened the doors to the reception area. "Let's get down there as fast as possible. The basement door should be over here, if the maps are accurate." Chris pointed towards the stairway in the back.

James and Heather's radios began to hiss quietly, and they both tensed, knowing that it meant bad luck was approaching.

"We should be careful, my radio is acting up." James said as he followed after Jill, who was looking into a reception area.

"I think we'll be fine-"Barry started to say, but as he reached for the door knob, a siren started to sound.

"Oh shit!" James swore and half the group spun, ready to defend against whatever may appear. As they all drew their weapons, something most of the group wasn't expecting happened, causing them to let out cries of horror and surprise.

They all watched, horrified, as the walls began to melt and the flooring burnt away. Goop flowed down the walls, pooling around the room, but not falling through the grating on the floor.

"What's happening!?" Chris asked Heather, but got no reply. He turned to where she had been standing with Douglas, but found nothing and no one. He then, panicked, turned to ask Barry what happened, but found him missing as well.

"Chris!' Jill yelled, pointing at his feet, and he looked down, seeing the black goop absorbing him. He tried to struggle out of it, but found himself falling out of consciousness instead…

\--

Heather woke with a choked scream, rolling off of the gurney she was on and landing hard on the floor.

"Oh god…" She lay there for some time, fighting off nausea, breathing deeply. A hand dropped onto her head, and Heather nearly screamed. Instead she spun and pulled out her gun, trying to focus on the owner of the hand.

"Whoa! Calm down, it's just me…" Barry's face came into focus, and held out his hand to help her up.

"Sorry." Heather apologized, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Where are we?" She opened her eyes and accepted Barry's hand up.

"I'm not sure, but I know we're not on the first floor anymore. Or if we are, we're not in the central room anymore. Do you still have your copy of the map? I don't know what happened to mine." Heather dusted herself off, and checked her pockets.

"Yeah, here." She pulled it out and unfolded it, laying it out on the gurney. "What the hell?"

Someone had taken the map, and circled the basement in red ink. In the same coloured ink, someone had written a message.

'He stole the key, so I cut him into pieces.-

I looked in the pieces but I can't find the key!-

…

LET ME OUT-

LETMEOUTLETMEOUTLETMEOUT-

If you let me out I'll give you something good.-'

"Jesus…"Barry held up the map, noticing tiny dots of red on certain parts where the light passed through. "So, what are we supposed to do? Put the guy back together? Find the key? I mean, I don't feel like letting this other guy out, whoever he is."

Heather agreed. "Yeah, but, what choice do we have? That key could be the only way out."

Their options limited, they left the morgue, as it was labeled on the map, and entered a dark hall. There was a strange groaning, which Heather assumed was coming from the boiler, but there was a tapping noise they both had no idea about.

"What is that?" Heather whispered to Barry, who shrugged.

"Maybe it's that guy we need to release? If he's trapped, then it could be him tapping on the wall or something."

They quietly crept through the hall, and pushed open the door of an unlabelled room. Walking in, they couldn't really see anything of interest.

"Well, this room was a bust. I guess every place we go in can't have something useful inside. I mean, unless we really need prisoner records." Heather joked, pulling a box out from the shelf, before looking into it and paling. "Oh."

"What's up?" Asked Barry, who was moving boxes away from a wall. "Hey, I think there's a door here."

"I just found an arm." Heather set the box on a table, before turning to help Barry.

"An…arm? In the box?" he asked, almost as if he didn't believe her.

"No, on the ceiling. Yes in the box. Is it that hard to believe?" She asked, before grabbing a stack of half empty boxes.

"No, just, that's a weird place to leave an arm. Wait, didn't that riddle or whatever on the map say something about someone being chopped into pieces?" Barry asked, and Heather nodded, the doorway finally cleared.

"Yeah. It also said the person who was cut up had taken 'the key'. So there should be a key somewhere." She tested the door, and smiled when it opened. "I would not have been happy if we tried that and it was locked or something."

Barry snorted as they walked through, checking the map. "So, that door wasn't even on this map, so then I guess this is a secret room. What do you think we'll find in here?"

"Maybe a leg!" Heather said, chuckling, before noticing the tapping noise was getting louder. The room they'd entered was empty though, no other doors to be seen.

"Why'd they hide this place with boxes and not put it on the map if it's just empty?" Barry asked, but Heather just shrugged.

"Who knows? Silent Hill defies all sensible nature, and maybe there was something here before. Or…" She trailed off, and moved to one side of the room. "Maybe there's a hidden room. I mean, we have to let some dude out, according to the riddle, so maybe he's somewhere behind a wall?"

Heather then began to tap on the wall with her sword, testing the one side. Barry took the other side, the one that didn't connect to the main hall, feeling for a difference in texture or temperature. It took then several minutes, but eventually Barry noticed something was up.

"Hey Cheryl, take a look at this." He had his hand on the wall, and paint was flaking off under his fingers. "Feel this. Does this feel like drywall to you?"

Placing her hand near Barry's, Heather could definitely feel something else. "It feels like…It feels like brick. Is there a brick wall here?"

Barry shrugged. "I don't know, but we can find out… so long as I find something to ram this wall with."

"Okay then, why don't I mark this down on here-" Heather pulled out the map and drew a box where the room would be, and wrote a reminder to bust down the wall. "-and we keep looking for… whatever we need to look for."

Barry nodded, and they left the area, entering back into the store room. The arm box was still there, and Heather grabbed it on a whim.

"You…want to take the arm with you? Why? I mean, you've got two, I've got two, do we really need an extra?" Barry joke, sounding a little unnerved by Heathers find.

"Well, Silent Hill is run on puzzles. And if the guy this arm belongs to stole a key, I get the feeling we'll have to do something like collect all his pieces before we get the key. I was planning on leaving this back where we woke up anyways. If we get attacked, I can't do anything while holding onto this."

"Good point." The two of them backtracked, putting the boxed arm on a gurney, before continuing. The tapping noise seemed to have gotten more frantic after the two of them had entered the hidden room, and combined with the groaning of the boiler it was creating a deeply unsettling noise.

Heather pulled on doors on the right side of the hall, Barry on the left, and after 6 more busted doors, Barry pulled one open.

"What is it labeled on the map as?" He asked, pointing his light inside.

"Uh." Heather pulled out the paper and squinted. "I think that is the incinerator." She looked up at Barry, and he pushed the door entirely open. They stepped inside, and the lights lit up the room.

It was mostly clean and intact, but almost empty. There was an intact gurney sitting in the middle of the room, with the torso of a man sitting on top.

"Jesus!" The arm had been decently preserved, but the torso not so much. The pair covered their mouths as they moved closer to it, and as they moved closer, Heather could see a chalk outline on the metal.

"Well, I think this is where we need the arm." Barry said, before backing away to look around the rest of the room. Heather nodded, distracted by something scrawled in old blood beside the body.

"10, 14, 11, 22, 7. Burn him and set him free." Heather read out loud, before turning away from the partial body.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Barry asked, turning away from the roaring furnace. "Wait…" Motioning for the map, Heather passed it over and he held it up to the furnace. "Look at this. There's pen or something on some of the rooms. And where you found that arm…"

Heather then spoke up. "There's seven dots. And, look here. There's ten dots." The two looked at each other, before Barry tucked the map in his pocket.

"So I guess we go to room number ten now." He said with a sigh, but Heather shook her head.

"I want to go get that arm before we continue. Then we don't have to back-track to get it later."

"But…" Barry relented. "Ok then, let's grab it and hurry through the other rooms. Or…Do you think you could go yourself and then meet me back here? While you grab the arm, I'll take a look in the next room. Then we won't be wasting so much time down here." He noticed the look on Heathers face, and stopped her before she could object. "Look, this isn't my first mission. Yeah, I've never seen anything like what this town is, but I've survived missions against Umbrella, and they produced some dangerous monsters. I'll be okay, and we can get this done much faster."

"Fine." Heather sighed. "But if I get back before you, and you don't show up within five minutes, I'm coming to look for you, and then we go no where alone." She walked to the door, and turned back to face him. "Be careful. We haven't run into anything yet, but that could change now that we're splitting up."

Barry waved to her. "I'll be fine. See you in a few."

The two moved in opposite directions, and as Heather approached the gurney room, her radio started to hiss lightly. It increased in volume as she nudged open the door, and peering in she could see two nurses standing in the far corner.

They looked like a combination of the nurses she'd seen her first time to the town and the nurses her father had seen. They were hunched over, a parasite on their backs and a revealing outfit.

'I wonder what part of my psyche dressed them like that…' she wondered to herself as she turned off her flashlight and crept into the room. She reached for the arm box, and managed to get most of the way out of the room before her sword sheath banged into something metal.

"Shit." She whispered to herself, bolting from the room, no longer caring if she made any noise. She didn't know if the nurses were following her, but she took the time to pause and turn her light back one, wanting to know ahead of time if there were more of them in the hall. Running into one while holding a box full of arm would not be good. Luckily, the hall was empty, but the noises had intensified.

She rushed into the incineration room and slammed the box on the gurney where the arm would go, before pulling out her sword and facing the doorway. The sword would produce less noise than a gun, and if she was attacked, would hopefully attract fewer enemies.

She was just about to go looking for Barry when he returned, a gash on his arm and a leg wrapped in plastic in his arms.

"So, I ran into some kind of nurse shaped thing. Is that normal?" He asked as he dropped the leg on the gurney.

"Uh, well, yeah. I should have warned you. I wasn't expecting them though, just because we hadn't run into anything before we split up." Heather rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed and annoyed with herself. "Here, let me take a look at that. I think I have some gauze in my pack."

She quickly covered Barry's arm, and he pulled out the map.

"Ok, these are the next three rooms," he said, using Heathers pen to mark them on the map. "I know you might not like this, but I think we should split up again. If we can get these body parts fast, then we can get back here fast."

"But what if there are more nurses out there?" She asked, not particularly wanting to split up again.

"Then we'll be quick and stealthy. What are they attracted to?" Barry asked as he passed back Heather's pen.

"Light and noise. If you're lucky, you can get them to attack each other, but that's risky." She took the map, trying to get a better idea of where the three rooms were. They were all in the same hallway, and each one only had at most two rooms between them. "So what room do you want?" Heather asked.

"I'll go through these two," Berry said, pointing to the two furthest from their current location. "Then I can back track if you need help."

"Or I can move forwards if you need help." Heather retorted, and Barry chuckled.

"Of course, of course. How about we meet up in this one?" He pointed at the middle room, and Heather nodded.

"Sure. Let's go." They both left the room, creeping down the hall. Barry stopped briefly in front of the room where he got the leg, and grunted in surprise when he didn't see any nurses.

"They're not there anymore," he murmured to Heather, but she just shrugged.

"Did you kill them?" she asked, but got a shake of the head in reply. "Hmm…"

They stopped in front of the first room, and Heather pulled the door open.

"I'll see you soon." She said, and started to look through the room as Barry continued on. It was a small office, of the head mortician, and, to her irritation, most of the drawers and cupboards were locked. The ones that were unlocked didn't have anything important in them, and she began to think that maybe Barry had made a mistake with the map. As she was about to leave, the door slammed shut, and a deep voice started to talk.

Heather spun, but couldn't see the speaker. She withdrew her sword and crept closer to the desk, now seeing that the chair had turned, and was now squeaking.

"…And, of course, that bloody lunatic in isolation keeps banging on the walls. It's starting to get on my nerves, and we still have no idea where the key is. I'm not that worried about it though. If he wanted to be treated like a human, than he shouldn't have chopped up that cook. I think I'm going to bring up soundproofing my office at the next budget meeting…" The voice faded away, and Heather heard something drop onto the desk. She moved closer and grabbed up a small key. She tried out all the locked cabinets, before finding one that unlocked. Inside was the other arm, wrapped in newspaper and duct tape.

Shaking her head, she stepped out of the room and moved down the hall. She took a deep breath before stepping into the next room, and was pleasantly surprised to see the head sitting out on a desk, nothing obstructing her from reaching it. She waited for Barry though, and it wasn't long before he appeared, the other leg in a plastic shopping bag.

"How did it go for you" she asked, still whispering, and Barry smiled.

"Pretty easy, considering. I didn't run into anything, but I found this letter of complaint from someone. Apparently the people here didn't do much to care for the prisoners or the patients."

Heather just shook her head. "Yeah…It seems like most people in Silent Hill are apathetic about their fellow man. Now, let's just grab the head and get out of here. I can take the leg."

Barry passed it over, before reaching out and picking up the head. They stood there for a beat, waiting for something to happen, before Heather turned and opened the door. A nurse was standing right outside, and Heather dropped the body parts, pulling out her sword and chopping at the monster.

Two solid hits and it was down, and Heather carefully reached for the body parts she'd dropped. Barry had his hands full with the head, and they needed to move fast. The two of them moved out into the hall, where three nurses where just standing around.

"Lights off, run past?" Barry asked, and Heather nodded. With their lights off, they couldn't see much, but they managed to slip by the monsters. Sliding into the incinerator room, Heather swung the door almost closed, before taking a deep breath.

"God, I hate those things." She said, placing the arm and leg on the gurney. "Ready for the head."

Barry placed the head down, and both of them felt something rush through them. They backed up against the wall, watching as the ghosts of two workers started the furnace and pushed the gurney inside. After a few minutes, the furnace made a noise, and the worker pulled the gurney out, before vanishing.

"What's that?" Berry asked, moving over to the gurney. Where there had been a body was now a pile of ash, and a key.

"You want to go let that guy out now?" Heather asked, pocketing the key.

"Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here." The hall was again empty of any enemies, and they soon found themselves back at the secret room.

Barry shoved his shoulder against the irregular patch of wall, which shifted. He stood, obviously not wanting to go through the wall, and instead pushed with his hand. A brick fell through, followed by more as both Barry and Heather pushed at the shoddy brick work. Eventually, they cleared enough away to see a door.

"Here, we need to pull these bricks away so we can get in there." Heather said, pulling at the edge of the wall. After a few hard tugs, huge chunks started to come off, and an area was cleared so Heather could open the door.

She inserted the key into the lock and pulled the door open. Inside was a skeleton, with scraps of fabric clinging to it. The person had been dead so long that there wasn't much of a smell, and Heather noticed something glinting in the bones. She reached in and grabbed it, before motioning for Barry to close the door.

"Jesus…The poor sap." Barry sighed. "Anyways, what did you find?"

"I'm not sure. Some kind of medallion, I think." Heather turned it over, before sighing. "Come on, let's go back to where we woke up. There might be another explanation there."

\--

When James woke up, Jill was already up and watching the area for monsters.

"Are you okay?" she asked, not really looking at him as she surveyed the area. "I just woke up too, but no one else is here. Whatever that stuff was on the walls grabbed everyone else and took them somewhere."

"I'm okay…" James stood and looked around. They appeared to still be on the first floor, but it had changed. Everything looked red, both from the lighting and the bloodied walls, and the grating on the floor had several large gaps that looked like they'd be impossible to cross. "Are we still on the first floor?"

"I think so." Jill reached into her pockets, digging around. "I think I still have one of those maps in here. Let's see…" She pulled out the map which was marked with green ink and had the first floor circled.

'He was talking to Mira again, that bitch, so I did something drastic.-

I saw him watching me again today, so I hid the key.-

Why won't he accept it and love me?-

…

I got him now, he's mine.-

Now, where did I put the key?-'

"What the fuck does that mean?" Jill asked, annoyed. She shook the map, as if she was trying to change what it said.

"I think it's a puzzle. I had to do some when I was looking for Mary and Laura. Does the map have anything else on it?" Jill passed him James the map, and he could see faint lines, an arrow pointing to a room labeled 'intake'.

"We have to go that way first, I think," He said, pointing across the room to the intake office.

"Lord, I hope this is easy…" Jill and James moved forwards towards the door.

It stuck, but as both Jill and James yanked at it, it slowly opened. Stepping inside, they could smell something sickeningly sweet, coming from one of the lockers behind the desk.

James moved over to it, and after looking back at Jill, who had her gun out and was watching the doors, opened the door. A pile of what looked like sugar cookies were sitting on top of a basket of rotting fruit. He covered his mouth, before grabbing the tag attached to the basket and backing away.

"Marty, I heard it was your birthday, so I got you this! The cookies are made with love, so make sure to think of me whenever you eat one! Lots of love! –Maria" James read out, feeling a tingle of panic run through him as he read Maria's name.

'Don't be silly, it's not the same Maria'. He scolded himself, before poking around in the desk.

"Huh… Well, looks like whoever she gave the basket to didn't want them. It's a shame, that looked expensive." Jill remarked, before pulling on the handle of another door in the room. The door shook, but the handle didn't turn. "Damn. Locked. Let's see now…"

James was now rooting through a filing cabinet as Jill dug around in her hip bag, searching for something. They both let out a triumphant cry at the same time, James holding up the door key, and Jill pushing the door open.

"Huh? How did you get that open?" He asked, and Jill shrugged, holding up her lock picks.

"Oh, you know, just some elbow grease." They pushed into the next room, which appeared to be an office. Again there didn't appear to be anything of interest, and they exited back out to the hallway.

"So, I'm thinking this is where they kept the patients. I don't think they'd have two nurse's stations on the floor with the prisoners." Jill commented, looking at the map in the red tinged hallway. "Anyways, let's try and get to that key."

James followed after Jill, trying doors as they passed, before they reached a sizable hole in the floor.

"Oh jeeze…Okay, where are we…" Jill muttered, pulling the map out again, but James was more distracted by the strange noise he was hearing.

He wasn't sure what it was, but as he strained his ears, the words became clearer as he moved closer to a patient's room.

'James…why did you…kill me…James…"

He jumped back, startled, before spinning to look at Jill, who had an odd look on her face. "Did you hear that?!"

She shook her head. "No…What did you hear? Was it important?"

"What? No, but…" James pressed his hand to his forehead, a headache starting to build. "Look, never mind. Where are we now?"

"It looks like we're right in the middle of patient rooms. Are any of these doors unlocked? If this place is working anything like the streets outside, we should be able to walk between rooms, via a convenient hole in the wall." Jill sighed, a frown on her face.

James couldn't blame her. He'd been stuck here with Laura for god knows how long, and he still wasn't used to what the town threw at him. He turned back to where he'd heard the talking, and tried the door. It swung open, and they stepped inside. The room was once white, and there was a large hole that almost took out the entire wall. The bed had been trashed, and someone had written something on the wall with what looked like a marker.

'…Lovemelovemeloveme…' James side-eyed the writing, before stepping over into the next room. It too was once white, but the bed seemed to be intact. There was also a table, cover in valentines.

"Jeeze…" Jill shied away from the table which was reeking of perfume. "This lady really was obsessed with this guy. You'd think she'd have gotten the hint earlier."

James shook his head. "I'm sure she just thought he was playing hard to get."

"James…"

"Hm?" James turned to Jill. "Yes?"

"Huh? What?" Jill tried the door finding it stuck in the frame. "Damn, it's stuck."

"Didn't you say my name?" James asked, confused, before pushing through a smaller hole in the wall to the next room.

"Uh, no, I didn't. Are you okay James?" As Jill followed after him, the lights in the previous two rooms turned off.

"That's odd." Jill said, looking behind her, but James wasn't paying attention. There was another hole, and he was starting to remember the hell that was beneath the Silent Hill Historical Society building.

"Is this door in working order?" He asked Jill, and she tested the door knob.

"Yep, looks like it." As she pushed on it though, there was a loud crash as something heavy fell against the door. "Shit!" Jill cursed, before slamming her hand into the wall.

"Jill, look…" James started to brush away some loose plaster that was shaken loose when Jill hit the wall, revealing a poorly sealed crack and a message.

"What does that…" Jill started to brush away the plaster too, and soon the entire message was clear.

'I'm going to catch you by the Laundry Room. Watch your back, whore.'

"Do you think this was left by that other woman?" James asked as he lights began to flicker.

"Probably. But I'm more worried because the lights are flickering and we're almost stuck here. Help me with this bed, let's try to get this wall down." James grabbed the back of the heavy bedframe, and the two of them managed to bust open the wall and jump into the next room a millisecond before the lights died and it turned pitch black.

"…James…"

Again, he heard a voice, but didn't mention it to Jill. He could tell that it wasn't her voice, and if it was, then she'd probably tap him on the shoulder or something.

"Where's the Laundry Room on that map?" He asked instead.

"It looks like it's four rooms down from here." The room they were in was bland, and so they moved through it without much thought. The same was said for the next three rooms, with the exception of the last one missing a wall where the door would have been.

Stepping out into the hall, they found themselves outside the Laundry Room.

"Well, it looks like the rooms on the other side of the hall we can't get in, and that one room mentioned the laundry room, so I guess we have no choice but to go in here." Jill said, testing the knob as James looked at the rubble blocking the rest of the rooms.

James was still worrying slightly, hearing voices was not on his top ten things to hear in Silent Hill, but he followed after Jill as she pushed the door open.

It looked quite ordinary for all intents and purposes, but there was a lingering smell of blood in the air, and two machines, a washer and a dryer, were running. There was something red in the washer, and something red and dark in the dryer, making a clunking noise.

Jill looked at James, and they both moved towards the machines, intent on shutting them off. James hit the stop button on the washer and it drained. He then opened the door, pulling the soggy laundry out.

"Do you really need to do that? It could just be sheets or something." Jill said, as he tried to spread out the sopping wet cloth.

"True, but there could also be something hidden in here…or they could just be washing bloody sheets." James shook out the sheets, droplets of bloody water went flying, and they could see writing on the sheets.

'GOT YOU NOW BITCH'

James turned the sheets over, to see if there was anything on the other side, but found nothing. As he shoved the sheets back into the washer, Jill hit the stop button on the dryer.

Unlike when James had stopped the washer, the dryer door slammed open, almost hitting Jill, before a head and a key bounced out of the machine.

The head rolled face up, revealing that the flesh had mostly been melted by the heat of the dryer and the eyeballs had popped, leaving a mass of flesh with some dark hair attached to stare up at the two of them.

Jill shrieked, surprised and repulsed by the head, while James retched, turning away while trying to control his gag reflex. He stuck his head out the door to try and get some air, even though there was no way it would be fresh, when he saw leg monsters lining the corridor. They were all standing, twitching as his light flashed over them, and he quickly pulled himself together and shut the door.

"We, we can't go back that way. There are at least 10 things out there. And I've encountered them before; they're more dangerous than they look." James was trying to not look at the featureless head, but the smell seemed to make him turn to it.

"Shit." He could see that Jill was trying to avoid looking at the head too. "Well, something else came flying out of the dryer alongside that head. Did you see where it went?"

"I…was too busy being focused on the head." James admitted, before looking down. "Look, it couldn't have disappeared, so it should be easy to find…" He started to look along the wall, while Jill searched the rest of the room.

Unfortunately, James, as he turned to speak to Jill, looked down at the head, before noticing something underneath it.

"I think I know where the key is." He said, disgusted.

"Oh, it's not under the head is it?" Jill asked, and she groaned at his nod. "Really?"

"I think so…" James grabbed a laundry hanger, and pushed at the head. It slid away, revealing the key, but thick chunks of its flesh slid off, causing both Jill and James to gag.

"Jesus…" Jill covered her mouth as she reached for the key while trying to not touch the flaps of skin. After a few attempts, she managed to grab it, before jumping back against the washers and dryers. "Got it."

"Good." James shuddered. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Jill pushed open the next door and they stepped through into a relatively clean hall. After a check to see if there were any hostiles on either side of them, Jill decided to take a closer look at the key.

"Hmm. This says it's for an orderlies room. Let's see where that is on the map…" She handed the key over to James, and he slipped it into his pocket.

After a few minutes, Jill folded the map. "It looks like we just have to go straight down this hall and take a right. Then we'll be in the orderly and nurses wing. I guess they had their employees living in the building too."

As they began to walk down the hall, James could hear what sounded like breaking light bulbs behind them. He turned his head to see what was causing the noise, before swearing and starting to jog.

"Shit! Run. The lights are going out!" He didn't even wait for Jill's reply, he just started to run. After a few, he looked to his side and saw that Jill was keeping even pace with him. Hell, he was sure she could have outrun him if she wanted to.

They reached the turnoff and skidded to the right, James hitting the wall and feeling something slimy stick to his jacket as he bounced. He reached into his pocket for the key, and looked at the room number, 124. Jill wrenched the door to the staff wing open and James ran through, heading right to the room the key fit.

He slammed it in the lock and turned it, flinging the door open and Jill dived in. He followed soon after, but not before hearing the voice again.

'James…I'm going to find you...'

He tried to ignore it though, slamming the door and slumping down with his back against it. "Are we safe?"

"I…It depends on your opinion of safe." Jill replied, and James looked up at the room. There was a large pool of blood on the floor, newspapers scattered everywhere, and two bodies.

James slowly stood, winded from the run, and took a better look at the two corpses. There was a male and a female, the man had been shot at least twice, and the woman had hung herself from the ceiling fan.

As James looked at both the dead people, Jill started to read from the newspapers.

"'In a shocking turn of events, three staff members are now dead at the Pale-Vale Minimum Security Psychiatric Prison from an apparent murder suicide plot. Maria J, a 26 year-old nurse, is reported as killing Mira K, a 32 year-old secretary, and her fiancé Marty F, the 28 year-old head orderly before killing herself. Friends and colleagues describe Ms. J as 'mildly obsessed' with Mr. F, and that she 'took his recent engagement to Ms. K poorly.'…'"

As Jill talked, James tried to move past Maria's body to the other side of the room, but instead bumped up against it. That shook her clothing, and James suddenly noticed something shiny in her pockets.

"Jeeze, so that lady killed that guy, and I'm assuming the owner of the head in the laundry room…" Jill said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, looks like it." James replied, distracted by the thing in the dead woman's clothes. He reached out and grabbed it, some kind of medallion, before Maria's body fell to the ground, the rope snapped.

James jumped away, still clutching the medallion, before turning to Jill. "Now what?"

\--

"…ris! Chris, wake up! Oh, come on…" Chris could feel someone shaking his shoulders, franticly yelling at him. His eyes opened, and Lisa fell back, relieved.

"Oh thank god, you're awake! Now you have to get up, something is coming!" He shot up at those words, scrambling to put himself against the wall.

"What is it?" He whispered to Lisa, who was shaking.

"I, I don't…" She looked behind her and shook her head. "I don't know. I just have the feeling that it's really, really bad. Like, Executioner bad. Do you know where we are?" This question released some of the tension in Chris's shoulders, and he pulled out his map, an ear still listening for the mysterious monstrosity.

"Yeah, here." He passed it to Lisa, who opened it and sighed, annoyed.

"Someone's written on this. Here, listen:

'It wasn't me, he made me do it, you know?-

I took the key they'll never find it.-

They said I stole the Doctor's key but It wasn't me!-

It's time for me to get out and get out of here take the traitor out.-

…

There's blood everywhere and I don't know what happened.-

I have to get out of here.-

Don't let them find me, please!-

I won't.- "

She passed the map to Chris, and he re-read the message, taking note of the fact that the second floor was circled in blue ink.

"Hmm, look, there's a '1' in this cell. Let's go check that out…" He trailed off as Lisa shushed him, and they crouched behind a crumbly wall as the Executioner appeared, heading for the stairs. He stood in front of the stairway door, and it squeaked open. Once the monster had stepped through, the door slammed shut, audibly locking.

"…Well I guess we aren't going that way." Chris said, standing. "Okay, now where's this cell? I want to solve this riddle and meet back up with everyone else. Being separated from everyone else makes me feel… antsy."

"Hmm." Lisa turned away, looking the way that the Executioner had come from, and Chris checked the map again.

"So," They started to walk to the cell on the far side of the hall. Chris wanted to know some more about Lisa as he didn't quite trust her yet. "You could 'sense' that thing, can you sense if there are any more monsters here?"

"Well, it's hard. This is not the same world as what this prison and hospital exists in. So I can say that there is currently nothing on this floor with us, but on the floors below or above us, I can't tell. The only reason I knew the Executioner was coming was because he was moving through this floor." Lisa sighed, irritated. "I wish I could tell where the others are, but I can't."

Chris contemplated the new information as they walked, all the cells they walked past locked, blocked off, or barricaded. "So, why didn't you mention this power when we were outside with everyone?"

"Well, because when we're with everyone Heather, er, Cheryl, Douglas, and James are there, and they have radios that warn us way sooner than I could. I'm slightly useless really." Lisa chuckled to herself, and Chris stopped his line of questioning. They had reached the cell, and Chris pushed at the door.

It slid open nicely, and they both stepped inside. Chris made sure that something was in the path of the door, so it wouldn't slam shut and trap them, so he stuck an old stool in the doorway.

They hadn't seen any of the other cells, so they had no idea what they normally looked like, but Chris knew they didn't look like the one they were in. Someone had given the inmate a marker, and he'd marked the walls with odd symbols and sentence fragments.

"What's this stuff supposed to mean?" Chris asked, reaching out to touch the wall. As his fingers brushed over the markings, there was a flash, and everything took on a blue tint.

"Shit!" Chris swore, and pulled out his gun, but Lisa waved him off.

"Look." She pointed over to the opposite wall, where a man was crouched, talking to himself and scribbling on the walls.

"Find the traitor…Skin the traitor…stop the traitor…remember." The man chanted to himself as he drew, only to be interrupted by the door opening.

"Jesus, look at this fucking mess. Come on, Mark, it's time for your meeting with Dr. Hend. Can you walk or do I need to drug you?"

As an orderly walked into the room, through Chris, the sitting man turned and started to scream.

Both Chris and Lisa clamped their hands over their ears, and there was another flash bringing them back to reality.

"What the hell was that?" Chris asked, shaking out his arms which had seemed to go numb.

"A ghost memory maybe? Or a psychic imprint. Either way, I think that was the writer of our mysterious map riddle." Lisa said, bending down to take a closer look at what the man had been writing in the memory. "Look at this."

Chris bent down to look at a small scale map scribbled on the wall. "'I took the doctors key and hid it in Kevin. Number two is there.'" He looked up at Lisa. "He hid the key in Kevin? This guy really was out there." He stood and shook his head. "At least we know where to go now."

With the map out, they both left the cell as Chris tried to figure out where they needed to go.

"So, I think our next destination is over there." He pointed down the hall before folding the map up. "I can't tell because there's ink on it, but I think we're heading for the infirmary."

"Great," Lisa smiled a tiny bit. "Maybe I can grab some more supplies."

Chris tilted his head. "Why, we have plenty, right?"

"Well, yes." They started walking. "But only if we stick together. If we get split up again, that's a problem. So I want to make sure we all have enough for some basic first aid. I mean, I have plenty, and Rebecca has plenty with her, but the rest of you guys? I think Heather, er, Cheryl, has some gauze and Douglas has a bottle of peroxide and some cotton balls, but that's it." Lisa was speaking so intensely, that Chris barely noticed when they reached the infirmary.

"Looks like we're here," He said, interrupting Lisa as she listed what she though each of them needed with them. She'd obviously been a nurse who knew what she was doing, before the whole death thing.

"Ready?" Lisa asked him, and he nodded, before reaching out and pulling the door open. It was dark inside, the lights seemingly replaced by, for some reason, industrial fans.

Chris flipped his flashlight on, not needing it before because the rest of the floor was relatively well lit, and there was another flash and more ghosts appeared.

"Shit! Where the hell is medical?" Two orderlies dragged in a man who was turning blue, and they dumped him on a bed while one orderly spun around, looking at the empty room.

"I think they all took the day off for Marty and Mira's funerals. And I guess Maria's too." The other orderly said, while patting the man on the back. As far as Chris could tell, it did nothing.

"Shit! What are we supposed to do then? If this guy dies, then-" the spinning orderly was cut off by his co-worker, who was now sitting on a stool, watching the inmate.

"Jesus, why do you care? It's not our job to deal with the medical shit here. If something happens, then it'll fall on medical's heads." He them pulled out a smoke and lit it.

The other man gaped at him. "Are you suggesting we just let him choke to death? Shit, we could get fired, even if this lands on medical."

The inmate was now slumped over, and Chris was sure he was dead.

The smoking orderly just laughed. "Seriously? Dude, they don't give a shit here if people die. I mean, I think they even give bonuses to people who 'assist' with peoples deaths in this place. And I know Dr. Hend would lock the doors and raze this place with everyone inside if he could, us included."

There was another flash and the room lit up. There was a skeleton lying on the floor by the bed, and Lisa knelt and picked up a key.

"This is what that man was choking on. And those two just let him die. I can't…" She handed the key over to Chris, before starting to pace around.

As Lisa was muttering to herself, Chris took a close look at the key, which was for 'Dr. Hend's 'office. He pulled out the map and was about to tell Lisa their next destination, when she gasped.

"What's wrong?" He asked, drawing his gun.

"I, no its nothing. I just didn't expect him to be here too." Lisa rubbed her forehead, before clarifying. "Valtiel. The thing that stopped the Executioner so you could grab Heath-Cheryl. I just don't know why he's here…"

"Well, maybe he's following the Executioner? I mean, it could be going after Cheryl again." Chris suggested, before realizing that wasn't a good thing.

"Oh, I hope not!" Now Lisa was wringing her hands, and it took Chris a few tries before he could get her calmed enough to look at the map.

"Look, this is the office we need to get to. It's not that far, a few offices down, but if you can feel something else up here, even if it acted friendly once, then we need to be careful."

"Or we could just run there." Lisa said, looking at the map. "I mean, we jog there, you open the door, we slip inside, and we're good."

Chris had to admit that it'd work, but when they opened the door to leave, the thing, Valtiel, was right outside, hanging from the ceiling.

"Ah!" Lisa slipped past Chris, keeping an eye on the thing. It turned it's head to follow her, and started to scuttle towards her.

As Lisa moved closer to the doctor's office, Chris scooped up a clump of brick and concrete, before chucking it away from both him and Lisa. The monsters head swivelled to look towards where the brick had hit something, before sliding away.

Chris carefully unlocked the doctor's office, not wanting to alert Valtiel that they were still there, and the two of them stepped inside. He slowly closed the door, and Lisa gasped as he turned on the lights.

"Oh god…"

There was what once was a man sitting behind a desk, his head smashed and his hand mutilated. It looked recent, but Chris couldn't be sure.

"Fuck, what the hell happened here?" He muttered, waking over to the desk.

Lisa heard his mutterings however, and answered him. "I, I think it was that man whose memories we saw, Mark. He said before that he needed to 'Kill the traitor', so, what if he thought the doctor was a traitor?"

"…Makes sense, but…" Chris placed his hand on the desk, holstering his gun, when there was another flash.

"Ahh, Mr. G. Perfect timing. I think we'll have a lot to talk about today, starting with what happened to your cellmate. Please, sit."

The doctor was behind his desk, sorting out some papers, and the orderly left 'Mr. G' with the doctor. Chris shivered as the doctor stacked a pile of phantom papers on his hand before moving.

Mark, or Mr. G didn't sit, and instead pulled something out of his sleeve. "Mr. G isn't here now. I need to eliminate the traitor, I need to save him."

The doctor didn't even look up, he only sighed. "Oh, is it this again. Please sit, Mr. G. We both know that your 'insanity' is a cover for your crimes. You need to take some responsibility, and you need to stop blaming the murders on this…'order'."

He wasn't paying attention as Mark moved, something the doctor would obviously regret. Chris moved back by Lisa as Mark began to punch the doctor, slamming his head into the desk, before taking a firm grip on the metal pole, a bed post, and slamming it into the doctor's face.

Finally done, the man shot up, suddenly scared.

"Oh noooo…you said you'd protect me, but…" He looked in dismay at the scene, and Chris was glad the man couldn't see him or Lisa. "What do I do?"

After standing still for several seconds, he shot forwards and patted the doctor's body down, looking for something. He grabbed two items, before sliding into the closet with a sob.

Then the scene was over, leaving both Chris and Lisa heaving.

"That man…" Lisa just shook her head, before placing her hand on the closet.

"Do you think he's still in there?" Chris asked as he moved to the other side of the closet door.

"I don't know, maybe…" They both grabbed a door knob, and yanked the closet open. Sitting in the back was the man from the memories, dead with foam in his mouth and clutching something tightly.

Lisa silently bent and grabbed the something, a medallion, before standing and backing away from the closet.

"What is it?" Chris asked, but Lisa only shrugged.

"I don't know, but it looks familiar. All I know is that we need it."

"Right…" Chris looked around the office again, with two bodies and dried blood, before sitting on the small couch.

\--

While Douglas woke up, his head pounding, Rebecca was still passed out, sitting in a wheelchair. He carefully stood, as the floor creaked and groaned when he moved, and made his way over to her.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, not placing his hand on her arm, but on the wheelchair.

She muttered to herself, but then shot straight up, eyes wide. Douglas moved back, giving her space to figure out what was going on, and once she appeared to look like she was fully awake, he spoke again.

"Hey, Rebecca. How are you feeling?" Rebecca grimaced, and climbed out of the chair.

"I'm fine…I think. I don't think I'm hurt, just a little…confused. Where are we? Where's everyone else?"

"I don't know. I just woke up and saw you, so I haven't had a chance to look around. Do you still have that map Heather gave you?"

"Oh!" Rebecca rustled around in her pockets, before sighing. "No, I don't. Do you?"

Douglas shook his head. "No, I didn't even grab a copy. Let's look around, see what we can find."

They didn't find much of anything inside the room they woke up in, but Douglas did manage to bust open a poorly bolted door. Stepping out into the hall, everything seemed to glow, even in the total darkness which was barely broken by Rebecca's flashlight.

"This is so creepy…" Rebecca stuck close to Douglas, who was less effected by the atmosphere.

"Well, the faster we go, the faster we get out of this place and can find the others. Let's see what we can find."

The hallway only lead to another door, but when Douglas pushed it open the smell of blood assaulted their noses.

"Jesus!" Rebecca's eyes were watering, but they still stepped into the main hallway, which was covered in blood. A trail was carved through the blood, like someone had taken a squeegee and cleaned out a path amidst the gore.

"Well, I guess we know where to go?" Douglas chuckled weakly, as they started walking through the bloody hall. Most of the doors were marked with bloody red 'X's', and they didn't bother testing the locks.

"Look, over there." Rebecca nodded towards a door with no blood on its surface. "Should we try it?"

Pushing open the door, which was a medication room, they stepped in. It was fairly clean, and even still held some of the medications from the prison.

"Can we use any of this stuff?" Douglas asked, and Rebecca started to look through the cabinets.

"I'm not too sure; I'm going to look though. I get the feeling that we're going to need as much of this stuff as we can get our hands on."

As Rebecca was looking for medication, Douglas started digging through the desk in the corner. It was cluttered with papers, but as he shuffled through them he noticed a sheet with bloody fingerprints.

"Hmm…" He pulled it out, curious, but almost ripped it in half once he started to read.

'Come on Dad, why won't you lend me the money? I promise I'll pay you back. I've got a big job coming up. Just lend me the fucking money, and everything will be alright.'

He looked at the paper, before folding it and placing it in his pocket. He had done a good job of putting his son's death out of his mind, but the town was dragging things up, the wallet he'd tossed away, the letters he'd burnt.

"Douglas? Is something wrong? What did you find?" He looked up, realizing that Rebecca was looking at him.

"Oh, no it's nothing. Just something that shouldn't be here." He smiled at her, trying to seem reassuring. "Did you find anything?"

"Oh! Yeah, some pain medications and some antibiotics. I also grabbed some more bandages. Are we done in here then?" She was looking at him, concerned, and Douglas was momentarily reminded of Heather, right when he'd found her and ruined her life.

"Yeah, let's go." The continued their walk through the hall, keeping their eyes open for more unmarked doors.

"There's another one," Douglas said as they rounded a corner.

"Ok, let's look there. I want to find a map. This place has a confusing layout, almost like a maze. I mean, this hallway is much too long." Rebecca pushed the door open and they stepped in, looking through the darkness but seeing nothing.

Douglas shut the door, and the lights flickered on. The room was fairly empty, nothing but a mirror and a tape recorder.

"Douglas…" Rebecca reached for the tape recorder, but he shook his head.

"Don't press play, I already know what it'll say." Douglas glared at himself in the mirror.

"Then what will it say?" Rebecca pulled down the recorder and passed it to Douglas, who pulled out the tape inside.

"It will say 'Mr. Cartland, when did you last see your son?'. It'll say 'Mr. Cartland, we understand you've been going through some economic troubles.' It'll say 'We're sorry to tell you, but your son was killed this morning, trying to rob Central Bank. Did you know anything about this?' That's what it'll say." Douglas continued to glare at his reflection, breaking from his staring contest when Rebecca mentioned that they should probably get moving.

They passed through a door, into an equally bloody hallway in silence, Douglas stewing in his thoughts, and Rebecca keeping a close watch on him.

"…There's another door over there." Rebecca said, as they entered the area. It looked like an office, and the only thing inside was a fragment of a newspaper, which Douglas let Rebecca grab.

She quickly looked over the paper, which didn't say much beyond the fact that Douglas had lost his job, his wife had left, and his son had tried to rob a bank. She shoved it into her pocket, and they were about to leave, when Douglas spoke.

That think, the Executioner. I think it's after me."

"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked, confused.

"It goes after the guilty, right? That's what James said anyways. But, you see, I let that happen to my son. I had the qualifications to get another job, but I refused to look for one. All I did was drink and yell. I was useless. We were running out of money and I didn't care, so Ryan took matters into his own hands. And he died, and it was my fault." He stopped talking for a moment, breathing in and out.

"But, you didn't tell him to do that, how could it be your fault?" Rebecca asked, but she didn't move any closer to him.

"No, I didn't, but if I'd done something, anything, then he wouldn't have died. Anyways, I tried to put it out of my mind, and became a P.I. I thought maybe I could help someone else, stop that from happening again, but I ended up failing a second time. I was hired, by Claudia, to find Heather, Cheryl. I had no idea what I was really doing, but I took the case because she told me Cheryl had been kidnapped, and I had to find her, to save her. Instead, I scared her away, and then later found out when I went to her house, that Claudia had used the information I'd given her to killed Cheryl's father, Harry. So now I have more guilt on my shoulders."

Douglas shook his head, obviously annoyed with himself and with what was placing the objects in the rooms.

"Come on," Rebecca placed her hand on the door knob, "Let's go find everyone else. It'd be better to stay as a group and deal with this."

Douglas replied with a grunt, and they stepped back out into the hall. There were several more open rooms, Rebecca picking up the newspaper articles, divorce papers, and birth certificates, before they reached the end of the trail.

Tacked to the wall was a map, with black ink circling the top floor, and arrow point to the roof, and a short message.

'Do you really think you can atone?-

You ruined her life too.-

Just hurry up and die.-

The Executioner is coming.-'

Douglas pulled the paper from the wall, crushing it into a ball, and tossing it back down the hallway.

"Douglas…?" Rebecca reached forwards and grabbed his arm. "Are you okay? What did that say?"

"We have to go to the roof. Well, I have to go to the roof. You should go find the others." He said, but Rebecca shook her head.

"I don't think I can, see?" She pointed back where the door had been, only now it was a bloodstained but smooth surface. There was no door.

"Then I guess we go up…" Douglas turned to the right, and matching the map, there was now a stairway to the roof.

They moved carefully, the stairs slick with gore, before stopping at the doorway.

"So…now we just go in?" Rebecca slowly pushed the windowed door open, but Douglas stopped her from going out into the fog.

"Wait." He stepped out in front, and a figure moved out of the fog, pointing a spear at him. Douglas stared at it, as Rebecca tried to look around him.

"Douglas, what's out there?" She asked, as Douglas turned around.

"…Go find the others." Douglas reached out and grasped her shoulders, before pushing Rebecca away from the door and closing it.

"Douglas, what are you doing?!" She yelled, grabbing the handle and yanking on it. Douglas had locked it though, and Rebecca could only watch, horrified, as he walked towards the Executioner.

"Douglas!"


	11. Chapter 11

Heather was holding the medallion to her light, trying to see though it, when she heard a scream. Startled, she dropped the disc and it shattered, sending pieces of glass skittering across the floor.

"Shit!" Heather scowled, angry with her clumsiness.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Barry said, touching her shoulder. "I think you were supposed to do that. Look, everything's…different now."

Heather took a look around, realizing that the room was no longer as filthy as it was before, and noticing a new door.

"What's that lead to then?" She asked, but Barry only shrugged.

"Who knows. My map is gone now, so I can't check that." With that, Barry moved forward and yanked open the door, revealing a stairway.

"Well then, shall we go up?"

\--

"Well, I don't know if we can head out of here safely." Jill shook her head, as she peered out into the hall. James could see that it was pitch black, and somewhere, out there, there were those leg things.

"Then we'll just have to wait here. Anyways, look at this. I found it in her pocket." James started to hand over the medallion, but before Jill was able to grab it, a scream made him fumble, and it fell to the ground and shattered.

"…Well I hope that wasn't important," Jill said with a strained smile, before she turned away to look out into the hallway again. "Huh?"

James shook his head, annoyed with himself, before bending to grab one of the larger shards of glass. He picked it up, only for it to crumble away into nothing.

"James, look at this. I think we can get going now, and it looks like there's a stairway out there now." Jill stepped out into the hall, and James hurried after her.

\--

Chris sat on the couch, slumped back against it as he tried to figure a way out of their predicament. "So, why would Valtiel be coming after us? I mean, it helped Cheryl, so shouldn't it be friendly?"

"Well…" Lisa fidgeted slightly. "He only helped because of Cheryl. She is 'The Mother' of everything in this town, really, and the rest of us are unimportant. He might even see us as a threat, because we want to get out of town, and take her with us, away from him. "Lisa shook her head, fiddling with the medallion. Before her or Chris could speak again, a scream caused Lisa to fumble, the medallion falling to the ground and shattering.

"Oh!" Before Chris could stand, there was another flash of light. When nothing showed up, Chris stood and opened the door, and looked out in to a dirty but different looking hallway from before.

"What's happened?" Lisa asked, but Chris just shrugged.

"Who knows, but there's a set of stairs now. What do you bet we have to use 'em?"

\--

As the three groups moved up the stairways, they started to run into each other. Heather and Barry were the first to run into James and Jill, relieving all four of them.

"God, I was worried it was just going to be us two in this place," Jill said with a small laugh, while James rubbed at his head.

"Yeah, this place was…interesting. Did you guys have to do anything weird while we were separated?" Heather asked, and James nodded.

"Yeah…It was a little odd, to say the least. Some lady killed two people then herself." James replied.

"Have you two seen anyone else?" Jill asked, but Barry shook his head.

"No, I was hoping you'd run into Chris or Rebecca."

"Well, there's still two more floors, right?" Heather asked, before starting up the stairs ahead of the others. "They're probably just higher up."

They continued climbing, and caught up with Chris, Lisa and Rebecca on the top floor, by the door to the roof.

"Shit!" Chris was running at the door, trying to knock it down, while Lisa appeared to be comforting an upset Rebecca.

"Chris! What's going on?" Heather asked, worried. "Where's Douglas?"

"He, he's out there, with that Executioner thing!" Rebecca said, looking down at her clenched hands.

"What?!" Heather pushed past Chris and peered through the window. "Out there?"

Rebecca nodded. "I tried to go out there with him, but he shoved me out here and slammed the door. I couldn't get it open, and Chris can't get it open either. And you can't even see anything out there anymore, the fogs so thick!"

"Oh no…" Heather felt a strange twisting in her stomach, and sat down with Rebecca. "Well, then there's nothing we can do, right? I mean, it's Silent Hill. If the town doesn't want us somewhere, then we're not going there. We'll just have to wait…" But she really didn't want to wait.

Barry switched with Chris and was trying to knock down the door when someone, Douglas, let out a piercing cry of pain.

Everyone stood and faced the door, waiting for anything to happen, when there was a loud thud and the door swung open. A wave of fog swept through, and Heather closed her eyes against the unnatural chill. When she opened them again, the area was clear, and Douglas way lying in the middle of the roof.

Heather, Lisa, and Rebecca all rushed in, while the others followed at a more cautious pace, and as Heather skidded to a stop and knelt by Douglas, she was relieved to see he was still breathing.

'What the hell happened?' She mentally asked and Rebecca and Lisa started checking him over.

"Cheryl, come over here for a minute." Jill called her over to the edge of the roof, where almost everyone else was gathered. Heather noticed that James was hanging back by the door, with an odd look on his face.

"Yeah, what's up?" She asked, clenching her hands. Until Douglas was up and moving, Heather wasn't going to be calm.

"Look, down there. Isn't that the Executioner?" Jill pointed down at a wooded area, where something with a triangular headpiece had fallen.

"Yeah, that looks like it. Did Douglas manage to toss it all the way down there?" She wondered. "And it looks like it's got something stuck in it. A spear maybe?"

"They kill themselves." James had crept up behind Heather, and when he spoke, scared the crap out of everyone.

"Jesus! James, you scared the shit outa me." Barry said, taking a deliberate step back from the edge.

"Wait, what do you mean, they kill themselves?" Chris asked.

James moved back towards Douglas before speaking. "Once you realize your guilt and accept responsibility, what you did wrong, then they die. They have no purpose anymore, so they kill themselves. Mine, they stopped moving, before putting their spears in front of them and impaling their heads. And I hadn't seen one again until…" James shook his head, much paler than he was before.

"You had to fight two of them?" Jill asked, but before James could reply, Rebecca called everyone over to Douglas.

"He's going to be fine, I think." She and Lisa had unbuttoned Douglas' shirt to check the damage, and the blood made Heather waiver for a moment. "His shoulder is a little busted up, and he's got some minor wounds and a concussion, I believe."

"But I don't think he should be out here anymore." Lisa took over while buttoning up Douglas' shirt again. "With a concussion and this shoulder injury, he shouldn't be out here. Once he's awake, I'm going to take him back to the motel."

"Why?" asked Jill.

"Well, unlike when Cybil was injured, Douglas is still wounded, and he needs medical attention. The others at the motel might have some rudimentary medical knowledge, but it won't be enough." Lisa replied.

"Ah, okay then. Will you two be fine heading back by yourself?" Chris asked, and Lisa nodded.

"Yeah, I think we should be okay, so long as we don't run into anything. But we should be good. I don't think the motel is that far away…"

But Barry shook his head. "No, you can't go back alone. I mean, He's gotta be heavy, so it'd be slow getting back, not to mention if anything does come across you, you'd both be pretty helpless. I'll go back with you too."

"Okay…" Lisa smiled and nodded, before realizing that Douglas was starting to stir. "Ah! Douglas, can you hear me? It's Lisa."

Douglas was a little groggy, but managed to sit up himself and talk a little.

"I honestly can't remember much of what happened, to tell the truth. I remember waking up, and seeing Rebecca. Then there were some bloody hallways, but I can't really remember anything else." He said, sounding annoyed with himself.

"It's okay. You're mostly okay, and that's what matters. Do you feel well enough to go with Lisa and Barry back to the motel?" Jill asked, antsy to get moving again.

"Yeah, I can mostly function. Here, you should take some of the ammunition I have with me. I get the feeling you'll need it more than we will."

With everything settled, the group heaved back down to the first floor, before splitting. As Barry and Lisa left with Douglas supported between them, the others went down to the basement, in search for the sewer access.

"I just want to get out here," Rebecca said with a shiver. "I am so done with this building, and I don't care how we get out of here, so long as we do."

"Agreed," James said. "I definitely don't want to spend any more time here than needed."

Luckily, the sewer access wasn't too hard to find, although it was hidden in the same room the bricked up solitary cell was, to Heather's discomfort. As they all splashed through a few lengths of tunnel, everyone was acting touchy and jumpy, double checking behind them and listening for any out of place sounds.

"I'm assuming we've all had a bad experience in sewers then?" Heather asked once, only to be shushed by everyone else. She didn't blame them. Silent Hill's sewers were filled with nooks and crannies, where anything could be hiding.

So when they all made it out, after Chris noticed a ladder leading up, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"God, that was almost worse than dealing with the damn monsters, the anticipation was really starting to stress me out." Jill said, stretching. "Where do you think we are now?"

"Uhm, I'm not too sure…" Heather said, pulling out the maps. "Are there any street signs around?"

"No…" Jill said slowly, "But there is a big sign pointing out to the Umbrella plant." Everyone turned to where she was pointing at a weed-covered tin sign.

"'Umbrella Research Plant #256 ahead. NO TRESPASSING.'" James read out. "Huh, seems like a lovely place to go and investigate."

Heather put her no longer needed maps back in her pack, and everyone started up the path to the plant. Gradually, the pavement turned to dirt, then back to pavement, before they all found themselves standing in a tiny parking lot.

"So, why were you guys looking for this place?" James asked as they walked towards the chained up front door.

"Well, do you know about Raccoon City?" Rebecca asked, and James nodded.

"Yeah…I think so anyways. Some kind of chemical spill from one of these kinds of plants, right?" He replied. "I was more preoccupied with Mary, to tell the truth. I didn't spend much time watching the news."

"Oh, it was much more than a simple chemical spill. Umbrella was mucking around, and created zombie juice." Jill said, sour. "Thousands of people died just in Raccoon, and we're still hunting down the ones who started the company, as well as the people who've gotten their hands on the virus. Bio-terrorism has made a leap in progress since you've been stuck here."

"Anyways," Chris interrupted, "What Jill is trying to say, is that we came into town to check out the plant and to see if it really is deserted, and if it has anything to do with how messed up this town is."

Him and Jill started working on the doors, prying them open and working around the chains, testing the keys that Lisa had in her bag, as James turned to Heather.

"They do realize that one tiny plant didn't do this, right? I mean, Silent Hill's probably been like this for hundreds of years."

Heather shrugged. "Eh, they don't think the town is capable. Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised if the town killed the people who worked here off. If they were doing weird experiments, the town wouldn't like its food source being siphoned off."

"I understand the town has an oppressive atmosphere, and some of the stuff we've never seen before, but the only logical explanation is the Umbrella plant. The town can't be conscious, it's not a person." Rebecca said, an odd look on her face.

"Maybe, maybe not." Heather said, before Chris let out a shout.

"Come on! Let's go look, and then get back to the motel. I am done with this place."

As everyone moved between the chains and the busted wooden doors, Heather looked behind her.

She could have sworn she'd heard a voice.

\--

Claire was starting to get a little bored, stuck in the motel room. Cybil was sleeping, and Laura was all curled up under a musty blanket, scarfing down stale M&M's, when something or someone banged on the door.

"Ah!" Cybil jolted awake, and Laura shrunk under her blanket. Claire looked back at both of them before drawing her handgun and attempting to look through the peep-hole. Unable to see anything, but able to make out noises, she called out.

"Who's out there?"

"Claire! Can you let us in please?" came a muffled reply, and Claire recognized Barry.

"I'm going to open the door, okay?" She said to Cybil and Laura, who nodded. With a deep breath, she unchained the door, threw the deadbolt, and unlocked the door, before opening it a crack.

It was definitely Barry, and Douglas and the weird nurse, Lisa, were with him. She opened the door all the way, and Barry and Lisa helped Douglas over to the second bed.

"Douglas! What happened to you?" Cybil said, concerned.

"Oh nothing. I just had a bit of a run in with that Executioner thing. Apparently I pushed it off a roof, but I'm not sure." Douglas replied, and Claire listened as they recounted their trek back to the motel as she relocked the door.

Lisa was rechecking Cybil and Douglas as Barry joined Claire by the window. It was fair-sized, showing nothing outside but fog and darkness, but it worried Claire. What if something came through it?

"Claire. How are you doing?" Barry asked, and as he surveyed the fog, Claire felt a tiny bit safer.

"A little bored, to tell the truth. And kinda hungry. I think Chris had most of the stuff we picked up in that convenience store."

Barry laughed quietly. "Don't worry, I have some stuff, and I'm sure Douglas does too." They stood in silence for a few minutes, listening to Lisa explain to Laura how to properly help someone with a concussion, when Barry spoke again.

"Why did you stay, Claire? I know you and your brother; you're not the types to be easily spooked once you're on a mission. I mean, you both get in this mindset, like nothing will shake you up, so why'd you stay?"

Claire sighed and fidgeted. "I didn't lie, not really, and I'm not as unflappable as you think. This place really creeps me out. With Umbrella, at least I knew what to expect, but here, it could be anything. Ghosts, monsters from hell, giant mice. Plus, I couldn't just leave these two here. Cybil's injured and Laura's just a kid. What if something had attacked?"

Claire took a breath, looking behind herself to make sure Cybil hadn't heard her. "Plus, Laura reminds me of Sherry. She's so young, and this place is pure hell. And she's been here for so long; she needed someone to stay with her, to play a game or something. Not to mention I did a smash and grab of a vending machine out there a little while ago. She said she was feeling hungry, and when I asked her when she'd eaten last, she didn't know. What would have happened if I wasn't here?"

"And you're still hungry?" Barry said with a smile, before sobering. "No, I understand. I was a little annoyed that Chris didn't ask anyone to stay with the two anyways. Hell, he almost let Lisa and Douglas come back, just the two of them. Admittedly, there wasn't anything we couldn't outrun, but it's still dangerous."

"He's just worried about this plant," Claire replied, before sighing. "Was everyone else okay?"

"Yeah, everyone else was great." Barry replied, and Claire smiled and tried to ignore the nagging feeling that that might not be the case next time someone came to the motel.

\--

The entrance was stark and empty, reminding Heather of cold doctors rooms, but there was still electricity running at least.

"Looks like they cleared out in a hurry," James commented, looking at a wall of ruined shelves, their contents tossed everywhere.

"Maybe they were worried about ramifications after Raccoon?" Rebecca said. "A lot of small towns made the Umbrella plants shut down after the spill in Raccoon. After people learnt that Umbrella was behind everything, they didn't want them around."

"Makes sense…" Heather said slowly, looking around. There was something wrong with the room, but she wasn't sure what it was. As she prowled around, trying to figure out what was bugging her, Chris and Jill started digging around in a mess of papers, looking for information on the plant, the people, and what they were working on.

"Wait, guys, is there someone in here with us?" Rebecca asked, casting a suspicious eye around the room. "I thought I heard someone say something, and it didn't sound like any of you."

"I, I didn't hear anything, but maybe one of the employees is still around?" James said, and Heather narrowed her eyes. There was something…off about him now, and she resolved herself to watch him closely.

"Yeah…Maybe." Rebecca went back to leafing through a stack of pamphlets, but everyone else now was listening for something.

"Aha!" Jill cried out, startling Heather. "Perfect. This says that most of their research findings were kept in Block C. Rebecca, do you still have those blue-prints?"

"Yep." Rebecca laid them out, and pointed out Block C. "It doesn't look like we'll have to hard of a time getting over there, unless there's been any significant structural damage."

"Perfect," Chris said, and he started for a pair of doors. While the electricity and lights were still online, a few of the electronic doors were working, so they were stuck shut. Luckily, they were made with cheap glass, and Chris smashed through them.

This time Jill didn't insist on sweeping the glass to the side, and everyone hurried after Chris as he strode through the empty halls. As they walked, the halls turned to large open spaces, but they were still empty. Dusty imprints showed that there might have been shelving units and desks, but there was nothing else, not even vermin.

Half-way to Block C, Chris jumped and drew his gun. "Shit! I think Rebecca was right, there's someone else in here. I just heard…something."

"What was it?" Heather asked, looking at James, who was fidgeting and much paler than before.

"I think it said that we were all going to die, but I could have misheard it?" Chris said with a shrug. "You guys didn't hear anything?"

"No…Are you sure you aren't just anxious to get out of this town?" Jill said, worried. "We can't let it get to us."

Chris scowled and continued walking, but he didn't holster his gun.

They made it to the doors of Block C, and Chris and Jill pried them open so everyone could slip through. It was then they found where all the workers and cabinetry had gone.

"Jesus!" James recoiled, staring at the pile of bodies on one corner. "What the hell happened here?"

"All these people…" Rebecca bent down and grabbed a notebook away from the nearest corpse. She opened it to the last pages, and started to read.

"'Spoke with Dwight today in the holding cell. He told me that he didn't shoot his team, he was shooting at the monsters. I asked him to elaborate, but he refused. He still insists that it was monsters that killed them.'

'There was another incident. Maria pulled a knife and stabbed half the kitchen crew before we stopped her. Three of them died, and we can't get her to wake up. Starting to wonder if we're not just synthesizing animal fats here.'

'Dwight died, stabbed himself in the stomach 5 times and bleed out before anyone found him. Wondering how he got a hold of that knife when we took it from Maria.'

'I thought I saw something last night following me from the security room to my quarters. Will investigate later.'

'I saw…something today. I pulled my gun on it, only for Brian to start talking. Made myself put the weapon down and I let them take me to the medical room. 4 more people are in coma's there, and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with me, so I went back to my quarters to sleep.'

'All I seem to see now is monsters…The tap oozes blood, and I can hear screeching all the time. The medical wing is full, too many dead and too many in coma. What the hell is happening here? God help us…'

'They attacked me! I had to shoot, I had to take them down…Wait I hear something, is there still someone out there? I have to go, I can't let them kill me. I'll bring the monsters body here with all the others, so I can prove it was real…'" Rebecca looked up at the rest of them. "What…what happened?"

Heather shivered, "'They look like monsters to you?'," she said, and when everyone turned to her, she explained. "I met someone, the first time I came here, and he said that to me. Then he said he was joking, but…It looks like that's what happened here. They thought their coworkers were monsters and fought back."

Rebecca looked sick. "So…those things we've killed, they could have been normal people, not monsters?"

"Ah…" Heather realized she'd opened a whole other can of worms. "No, I'm sure the ones we've encountered were real monsters. Otherwise we'd be attacking ourselves."

"Oh, right…" Rebecca still looked ill.

"Anyways, we need to find their research notes." Chris interrupted. "That notebook said they were synthesizing animal fats, but we need to know what for. Come on."

They carefully edged their way around the pile of bodies, which, for some reason, looked well-preserved despite the fact the plant had been closed for years, and opened a door to the records room.

It was reasonably well-kept, and to everyone's surprise, they were able to find exactly what they needed. Unfortunately for Chris and Jill, it wasn't what they wanted to find.

"…" Chris read and reread the papers on the desk, trying to twist his head around the fact that this particular Umbrella plant really was manufacturing anti-wrinkle creams instead of death rays, when Jill jumped and screeched.

"Jesus!" She yelled, whirling around to look behind her.

"What, what's wrong!?" Rebecca asked, and Jill started to shake.

"I take back what you said when you heard a voice, Chris. I definitely heard something just now…"

"Did it say anything to you?" Chris asked, and Jill shook her head.

"Nothing I could clearly make out. Let's just hurry and get out of here though."

James was starting to look ill, Heather noted, as they hurried, Jill collecting several papers and Chris carefully taking the journal Rebecca had found and slipping it into a plastic bag. Once they all had what they needed from the records room, enough to prove that this was a harmless Umbrella plant, they exited to Block C's main room.

This time, as they moved around a pile of filing cabinets, Heather heard the voice.

"James…James…"

Heather grabbed Jill's arm, and everyone stopped.

"What is it, Cheryl?" Rebecca asked.

"I just heard that voice…" She said slowly, letting go of Jill and turning to face James. "You can hear it too, can't you?"

"Ah…I don't know what you mean." He replied, but Heather shook her head.

"Yes, you do. Every time someone mentions a voice, you get pale and look sick. Not to mention the voice was saying 'James' to me. What's going on?"

"Right…didn't you mention hearing voices before, James?" Jill asked, concerned. "Who are you hearing?"

"I…I…" James looked at the ground, before taking a deep breath and starting to talk. "It's Maria…"

"What?" Said Jill, "Like, the crazy lady we saw in the prison place? And that person here who was stabbing people?"

James shook his head. "No…I met her here, when I first came to this town. She looked like Mary, sounded like Mary, but she wasn't my wife. Then she died, three times." James shuttered, listening to some voice, perhaps. "She was a construct of this town, and when I wouldn't choose her over my wife I had to stop her from killing me."

"Really, James? Did you really have to stop me? I only wanted to be with you…" A woman's voice echoed through the large room, before a woman in a miniskirt and chunk boots stepped out of the shadows. "Or did you just want to kill me like you killed your wife?"


	12. Chapter 12

James looked both terrified and enraged as the woman stepped out and smirked at him.

Heather reached for Rebecca, and pulled her back. "There's something wrong with that woman, she's not right..." Rebecca though, ignored her and focused on James, who was wavering.

Jill narrowed her eyes. "What does she mean, James? I thought your wife died in hospital from some sickness?"

"I-" James stumbled back from Maria, from the group, his hands over his eyes. "No, I mean, yes, I mean…"

"Oh, stop stalling, James Darling, and just tell them the truth…before things get worse for you." The woman crossed her arms and as she surveyed the group, Heather broke out in a cold sweat. Something was definitely not right with this Maria woman.

James was still stumbling over his words, before finally shouting out. "She-she was dying! She was dying, and she was in pain, and I couldn't do anything! The doctors wouldn't help, they'd just give her some pill that would do nothing, and she was dying, wasting away, and…" James sobbed, and Heather understood.

"You…You killed her, so she wouldn't suffer anymore, didn't you?" She asked, and he nodded, his hands still on his face.

"But the doctors, they must have been able to do something! How could you?" Rebecca asked, horrified and accusatory.

James shook his head, moving further from the group. "No, they couldn't do anything. I would get calls late at night, early in the morning, asking me to come in because she was on her death bed. There were days when she was lucid, days when she could eat, and then there were days where I stayed with her night and day as she started to fade, machines and pumps attached to her. I couldn't stand it, watching Mary fade. I had to do it."

"Oh, bullshit James. We both know that's not true." Maria crooned, waving her hands in Heather and Chris's directions. A shudder worked through Heathers bones, and she found herself unable to move anything but her eyes.

"You hated Mary, right? I mean, why else would I be here?" Maria continued as James kept backing away, until he encountered a wall.

"Because my guilt created-" He started, but Maria cut him off.

"LIAR! You didn't create me, I created myself!" She yelled, swiping at him and leaving several deep scratches in his face. "I created myself to make you suffer, James. Accept it. I was never your creation."

"No." James ducked away from Maria, now moving closer to the other three. "I don't know what you're doing, why you're still here, but I have to stop you before you hurt someone."

"Oh, and how are you going to stop me, James? Conjure up some nice triangle helmeted people to stab me? No, I think I'll just go and destroy everyone you've met here so far. These three, then the ones in this motel you keep talking about. It shouldn't be hard to find them." Maria said, taking a step towards Chris. "I mean, that will hurt you, and then maybe you'll fucking remember and accept what you did."

Heather could hear Chris and Jill both growling obviously pissed that they couldn't move or do anything, but she stayed focused on James and Maria.

"No, I won't let you," James said, "You can't hurt these people, and I most definitely will not let you harm Laura. I promised Mary I would take care of her, and I won't break that promise!"

He bent down and grabbed a table leg that someone had broken, and brandished it at Maria. He still had his gun, but Heather figured that he was too caught up to remember having it.

"You are completely delusional!" Maria screamed at James, who started to step away, but instead held his ground. "You have no need to take care of that brat anymore, you never did. Just hurry and accept it, you're like me."

James shook his head. "What are you talking about?! I'm nothing like you!" He cried, moving to hit Maria with the leg.

"YES YOU ARE!" Screamed Maria. "YOU ARE DEAD! YOU'VE BEEN DEAD FOR YEARS! ACCEPT IT!"

Everything went silent, and Maria heaved for breath she didn't need, before James whispered something. "What did you just say?" She growled.

"I…I'm dead? But how? Why? What about Laura?" James didn't seem to understand what was going on, and Heather could relate. She was sure none of the others understood either, but she couldn't be sure.

"You," Maria sneered at James. "Drove your car into the lake, and drowned. You couldn't stand to live after you remembered what you did to your precious Mary. But then you had to feel a sudden pang of guilt, because your stupid wife had left you a letter that you dutifully read, asking you to watch that girl, and you'd left her alone instead. So you manifested yourself so you could help that brat, and so you could pretend you were doing something good again. Of course, you couldn't leave, and you started draining yourself to shield her from the town, hunger, everything…I almost didn't find you, you were so weak." Maria smiled, a twisted thing on her face, before turning and reaching towards Chris.

James barely took the time to register what Maria had told him, barely any time to comprehend or think, before springing forwards and grabbing her as her fingers touched Chris' nose. As he pulled her away from them and started scrapping with her, Chris and Heather managed to break out of Maria's hold, and they dragged Rebecca and Jill to a safe distance.

"Come on, we have to help him," Heather said, but Chris shook his head.

"I don't think we have to," Chris said, pointing. "Look, I think James has everything under control."

Both James and Maria were starting to become less and less solid, James' coat falling through him to the floor and he pulled Maria back through the destroyed table. His gun fell too, at the last minute, and he turned to them.

"Take care of Laura, okay?" He asked, before grabbing Maria as tightly as possible and fading away with her as she screeched and tried to get away.

"SHE'S AT THE CHURCH SHE WILL KILL YOU ALL!" was the only thing she managed to coherently yell amidst curses, before fading with James and leaving nothing behind.

Suddenly, everything was moving again, from the dust motes in the air to Jill taking deep, heaving breaths.

"Oh god…" Rebecca stared at the place where James had been standing with Maria moments before. "He… He was dead? And he was keeping Laura alive by himself? Oh god…Who's going to tell her? She looked like she was really close to him." Rebecca rubbed at her eyes, whipping away any tears before they started rolling down her cheeks. "And I was so angry with him, about his wife! God, I…"

"I need to go back to the hotel." Jill broke in, turning to Chris. "I need to tell Barry and Claire what we found. Or, rather, what we didn't find." She then looked over to Rebecca, who'd walked over and bent down to pick up James' coat and weapon. "And I think I should take Rebecca with me. After what happened to Douglas, and now this, I think she needs to take a break. And I think she'd be better at letting Laura know what happened to James than me. You two will go to that church, right? And check out what 'Maria' said?"

Chris started to object, obviously not wanting their party to deplete to just two, but Rebecca interrupted. "I don't really think I need a break, Jill, but I agree. I'm going to head back to the hotel. Laura needs to know what happened, and…" she trailed off, pale and tired looking.

Jill looked at Chris, silently talking to him, before placing an arm around Rebecca's shoulders and pulling out a map. "Look, we're going back to here, and you and Heather are going to check out that church over there. You're not going to be that far away, and, if you need too, I'm sure you two can run back and grab some backup if you need it. Now, stay safe, okay?"

"Ah…Yeah, you too." Chris placed his hand on Jill's shoulder, before watching her walk off with Rebecca. Heather, on the other hand, was more worried about Maria's weird warning, and who they were going to meet in the church.

"Jesus…this town does not want us sticking together, does it?" Chris sighed, weary. "And I didn't even say we were going to church. But I guess we should now."

"Nope…"Heather replied. "Listen, I think I know who the last person Claudia mentioned is, the one Maria said was at the church that we may or may not be going to."

"Who?"

"Dahlia Gillespie, Alessa's mother. My father first met her in that church, and that's where she tricked him into helping her." Heather sighed. "I really don't want to see her. Claudia was hard enough to face, but Dahlia was different. She hurt both Alessa and the other Cheryl. Not to mention, Silent Hill was always like this, crazy and dangerous, but Dahlia did something, preformed a ritual, and hurt Alessa. And so Alessa changed this town, causing it to become like this."

"Wait, so if Alessa was so powerful, how did her mother stop her?" Chris asked, wanting all the facts before they left.

"My dad. She told him that Alessa was behind everything, and she'd taken Cheryl, when in reality, yes Alessa had influenced the reality of Silent Hill, but she was trying to scare my father away, so he wouldn't help Dahlia. But he listened to Dahlia, and took some kind of talisman with him to wipe out Alessa's circles of power. This allowed Dahlia to remove any hold Alessa had over the town, and then…" Heather stopped talking, not comfortable, really, talking about what had happened to her, before she was Heather.

Chris stood, digesting what Heather'd told him, before nodding. "Ok, she's not to be trusted, and she can probably hurt you if she wanted too. Well, let's get going. We've been standing in here with these bodies too long. I bet Jill and Rebecca have made it back to the motel already!"

Chris started to walk off, and Heather slowly followed. Confronting Claudia had been horrible, but she hadn't really confronted her, it had been Alessa. But Dahlia…She'd done so much to hurt Alessa and Cheryl, and Heather didn't want to confront her.

'At least Chris will be there…but who knows how much help he'll be,' Heather thought as she caught up to Chris. 'I still don't think he realizes what this town is…'

Jill and Rebecca were obviously gone already, but Heather still watched for them as she and Chris walked back to the main part of old Silent Hill. When they reached the streets, she recognized the area as where Harry had crashed when he'd come here with her.

While walking around the different road-blocks, Chris tried to make some conversation. "So…are you worried about Dahlia? I mean, if she can take down Alessa, then she might know what buttons to push for you."

"Maybe… I mean, she died when Dad was fighting their 'god', but it seems like nothing is staying dead this time around, so who knows?" Heather opened the door of K. Gordon's house again, and they passed through it again.

"And we all know who to thank for that," Chris muttered.

"That Wesker guy, right?" Heather sighed, ducking under a very low hanging branch, "I just want to know how the hell he brought them back, and why."

Chris snorted. "You aren't the only one. I would say that it was to try and kill me and my team, but this is too elaborate, even for him."

The chatter dropped off as they neared the church, its bells ringing. With every loud ring, Heather's radio began to spew louder and louder bursts of static, and Chris started pointing out monstrosities prowling in the trees and on the sidewalk beside them.

"…I'm glad we decided to walk in the street," Heather whispered, trying to ignore the tense feeling in her stomach.

"Yeah." Chris replied. "So I'm going to assume Dahlia knows we're coming."

"What gave you that idea?" Heather whispered back, before going quiet. Nothing was attacking them. Yet.

Heather's gaze lingered on Midwitch Elementary School as they passed it by on their way to the church, remembering what it had been like for Alessa there.

She was so caught up in her thoughts, that she didn't notice when they reached the church steps until Chris asked if she was ready to go in.

"N-no, I'm not, to tell the truth," She said after he repeated his question.

"Yeah, I didn't think you would be," said Chris. "But we have to go in. On three, weapons drawn?"

Heather nodded, deciding to pull out her gun, rather than use her sword. Who knew what Dahlia had up her sleeve?

Ready to go, Chris pushed open the door, and they both stepped inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had put that James' car was at the rest stop, so lets just say that the ghost of his car appeared too?  
> :P


	13. Chapter 13

The interior of the church was dark, and as Chris and Heather started to walk down the aisles, the floor creaked and shifted, the wooden slats disintegrating.

"Oh for fucks sake!" Heather swore, dropping her gun and grabbing for both Chris and a pew as the floor beneath her fell away. She missed Chris, but managed to grasp a tiny piece of floor that hadn't yet fallen to pieces, and her legs swung in the darkness beneath her.

"Shit, Cheryl! Okay, don't try and move, I'm going to inch my way over and try and grab you!" Chris holstered his gun, and that was what possibly saved Heather later on. He carefully slid over to her, the beams creaking and shifting around them, but as he reached down to grab her hand, the rest of the floor dissolved, sending them falling.

Heather didn't know how long they were down there before she woke up, but as Chris nudged her, yelling over her radio she realized she didn't care as she focused on the large bladed thing that was trundling towards them.

She let Chris help her up, only having to work her sword out of the gaps in the grating once, and they both turned and ran, or limped in Chris' case, away from the thing.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Chris waited until they had turned a corner before replying. "Yeah, I think so. I think I landed on something, so my legs a little sore."

Heather shouldered open the only door she'd seen, which opened into what looked like a store room. It was empty of enemies, and Chris sat down on a table and pulled up his pant leg. Heather could see a bruise starting to show, and reached in her pack for a canister of cream that Rebecca had given her. "Here."

She tossed it to Chris, and started poking around as Chris spread some on his leg. The floor had become grating, a dry heat coming up from below, and the walls appeared to be melting. Thick globs of something red rolled down the wall, oozing through the grating and leaving behind the smell of burning flesh and rubber.

"It's the same thing here? It's like when we went into the amusement park and that psychiatric prison/hospital…" Chris passed Heather back the cream, pulled his pant leg down, and hopped off the table. "Where did we fall to, then?"

Heather looked around. "I think this was the basement, but who even knows if this building had a basement. Silent Hill likes to warp reality, obviously, so it could have created this space. I do know that we need to get back upstairs, Dahlia is likely to be by the altar."

"Right. What do you have for weapons now? I saw you drop your gun, and you still have that sword, but do you still have anything else?" Chris asked.

"No, just this and my taser." Heather said, adjusting her belt and checking the katana to double check that it was still there. "Douglas had a rifle, but he gave it to Jill and she took it back with her and Rebecca. Besides, I've taken a few classes, so I'm not just flailing around anymore."

Now that they were both ready, Heather opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. It looked mostly the same as the store room, but there were more monsters. One swung down off the ceiling as Heather stepped out and she dived out of the way.

Chris shot at it, but it moved bladed legs and blocked the shots, before screeching and rushing at him. Now he dived to the side, and Heather pulled out the sword and started to wail on the monster. She dodged the blades and was able to quickly and quietly dispatch the thing, finally able to skewer it's head on the end of the katana.

She used her foot to push the body off of her blade, and watched as it bubbled away.

"That's convenient." Chris noted. "Do these things have names?"

Heather gave him an odd look. "Uh, yeah. That there was Larry, we already ran into Phillip, and we're going to deal with John and Janice and their friends in a few minutes. No, these things don't have names!"

"No, I meant, do you have anything you call the monsters? The things me and my team have faced are called things like Lickers or Hunters. We use it for convenience, really. Plus, I think this is a Susan, not a Larry." Chris clarified.

Heather shook her head, holding in a cough. "No I…excuse me-" she turned away and started to cough, lough wet sounding ones, and a small fleck of bloods splattered in Heather's hand. She tried to hide it from Chris, trying to focus on the quiet hissing on her radio, but Chris noticed.

"Are you okay, Cheryl? Were you hurt?"

Heather waved him off. "No, it's just…it's nothing. Look, we should keep going before whatever it is that's making my radio hiss gets closer." Heather knew it wasn't nothing though. She's already cleansed that thing from her body once before in this town, but she knew it had regrown, and it was bigger and more powerful, invasive, than before. It felt like it did when she'd faced off against Claudia for the last time, in the other church. She would have to get rid of it, and soon.

'But not here. I have no idea how Chris would react to me barfing up a "god". Plus it's not safe.' The static noise was getting louder, and she hurried after Chris as he started to move. Peering around the corner, Heather and Chris could see two more of the bladed things.

"I'll take John if you want to take Janice." Chris said to Heather as he pulled out his knife.

"Sure, just don't get your head chopped off. I don't want to have to tell your sister or your girlfriend what happened." Chris sputtered as Heather moved towards the monster on the left, and started to attack it.

Chris recovered and dashed in with his knife, and when Heather pulled away from the dissolving body, she turned to see Chris land the finishing blow on his monster. "John didn't give you any trouble, then?"

Chris pulled out his knife and put it back in its sheath. "Didn't even know what hit 'em. Anyways, why did you say girlfriend?"

"Huh? Well, you and Jill seem pretty close; I just assumed you two were an item." Heather replied, taking the lead and walking back to where they'd fallen in the first place.

"Well, we are close, but we're not…uh…dating or anything. We're just friends! And colleagues! So…" Chris was getting flustered, and Heather's laugh turned into another cough, leaving Chris to take down another bladed monster while she crouched, trying to hide the blood that was coming out each time she coughed.

The threat gone, Chris bent and pulled Heather up. "Are you sure you're okay? You shouldn't be bleeding like that just from coughing."

"No, its…its hard to explain." Heather sighed, frustrated, and wiped her hands on her pants, leaving two streaks of blood. "It's because of the town. Lisa said that the longer I'm in this town, and the angrier I am, the faster it will grow, the 'God' thing."

"Oh, that's, uh, great. But you have that stuff, right? You can get rid of it?" The room they'd landed in first was wide and empty, showing nothing besides a series of paintings hanging on the walls. Heather looked at one behind Chris, and realized that they were the same as the ones she'd seen in the other church, the one with Claudia, but someone had crudely pained her face over the 'God's' mothers face.

"Yeah, I can. I just want to be somewhere safe and clean and away from Dahlia before I try and get rid of it. Last time, Claudia, well, she, uh, ate it and it tore her apart and started to grow, so I had to kill it. I'd rather nothing here decide to eat the thing." Heather replied, and Chris looked revolted.

"She ate it. Why would…" He shook his head. "Okay then, I don't really want to know, but if there isn't anything here anymore, I think we should head back the other way. We're bound to find stairs somewhere."

"Of course, saying that means that there's a possibility of us falling another story." Heather said, before moving closer to the wall.

More monsters appeared between Heather, Chris, and the stairs, but they were able to either kill or maneuver past them. Approaching a door, Heather could see a small indentation and a note.

"Oh for fucks sake, another puzzle? I am so sick and tired of puzzles now." Heather groaned as Chris read it out loud.

"'Bring the first tooth of the God born of the false mother and pass into the light'." He looked at Heather. "Do you know what that means?"

She nodded. "Yeah. We have to go back to where we fell. There were paintings there, most of them with my face added on top. I bet there's one there that hasn't been altered."

The both trudged back, annoyed by the backtracking and taking it out on the things that appeared between them and their destination.

Back in the big room, they found themselves with three choices. Or, rather, Chris found himself contemplating three choices and Heather already knew the solution.

"That one there." She pointed to a painting with a photograph of Claudia pasted on top.

"Are you sure, what about these other two?" Chris asked, gesturing to a painting of Alessa, and to one with a crayon drawing labeled 'Cheryl' pinned to it.

"No, those ones are right. That one there is Alessa, and that is Cheryl, the old Cheryl, so they'd count as the 'True Mother'. That's Claudia, in that picture, so I know for sure she's the false one." Heather said, before moving forward and examining Claudia picture. There was…something in the portraits arms, and Chris pried something out of the picture, where Heather assumed the things mouth would be.

Now holding a sliver of bone, they walked back to the puzzle door, Heather shuddering in pain as the thing inside her started to wiggle. 'Being in this church, so close to Dahlia, must be making it more active, making it grow faster.' She thought, placing her hand on her stomach and breathing through her mouth.

Heather let Chris deal with most of what came their way, as she was feeling sluggish and slow, before they stopped in front of the puzzle door. Heather leant against the wall as Chris inserted the sliver of tooth, despite the risk of getting whatever was on the walls on her clothing, and tried to catch her breath.

The door opened, and Chris turned to her. "Cheryl, are you sure you're okay? You can go back to that one empty room, and I'll go ahead. Then you can deal with your…thing." He offered, but Heather shook her head. It was too risky, splitting so they were both alone. Not to mention she had no idea what would happen if Chris did take out Dahlia, what would happen to the rooms down below.

"I'll come with you. It would be better if we stuck together in this place, in case something happens." She said, and Chris nodded and started up the stairs. As Heather followed, the door behind them slammed, and a disturbing grinding noise started up, making the both of them move up the stairs a little faster.

Chris flung open the door at the top of the stairs and stepped out, training his gun on an old woman who was standing beside an altar. Heather moved away from the stairs, standing just in front of Chris, coughing and glaring at Dahlia.

"Oh Alessa! Have you come to see your mother?" the old woman, Dahlia, asked, leaning against the altar, hiding something in her hands.

"I'm not Alessa, not anymore." Heather replied, narrowing her eyes and placing her hand on the hilt of the sword. Her body shuttered again, and Heather winced. Now she knew that she couldn't wait until they reached another place to use the Aglaophotis, and she stepped backwards.

"Chris, keep an eye on Dahlia. I need to-" Again Heather started to cough, one hand on her mouth and another scrambling for the crystalized liquid. She could care less for what Dahlia had hidden, she was more worried about the thing inside of her coming alive and destroying everything.

"Cheryl! What the hell is wrong?" Chris said, glancing at her while she crouched, her racking coughs forcing her down.

Heather grabbed a piece of Aglaophotis and swallowed it, before starting to cough and heave, feeling something large and slimy and painful moving up her esophagus. Partway up, it seemed to get stuck, and Heather found herself getting dizzy, and she reached into her mouth, able to reach and grab something pulsating and rubbery. The lack of air from the 'God' in her throat, the urge to just swallow it back down, and the pain in her head made her much more weak and determined, and she ignored whatever Chris was shouting, focused on removing the 'God' thing.

Finally, Heather spat it up, a large lumpy thing around the size of her forearm, and she sat on the ground, panting, before grabbing her sword out and stabbing into it. Blood and other fluids oozed out of the wound, and Heather forced herself to stand, before bringing her foot down on it, causing it to rupture. Lumps of something splashed out, and both Chris and Heather now had god guts adorning their shoes.

"Cheryl, look out!" Heather finally paid attention to what Chris was shouting, and she looked up to see Dahlia throw something, the Flauros her mind helpfully provided, into the air. It started to glow, and before Heather could do anything, a light hit her and everything started to hurt.

Chris watched, horrified, as Heather fell to the ground, convulsing as Dahlia cackled. She paid no attention to him as he raised his gun, instead raising her arms to the roof, screaming out the name of some blasphemous god, before he shot.

The old woman fell, and Chris moved forwards, suddenly overwhelmingly angry with her. He shot her body again and again, until his gun clicked empty and he realized what he was doing. Shaking himself from the feeling, he knelt by Heather, who had stilled, but was still unconscious. As he picked her up, the church started to crumble, and he pushed his way out of the room, shouldering the door open.

Chris could hear the roof falling in, and started to move at a much faster pace. He emerged into the street, but it was so dark he could barely see. He took a moment to adjust his flashlight before running onto the street from the church steps as it fell behind him.

He turned to look back at it, the rubble pile large and menacing, before Heather's radio started to crackle and he started to run. As he moved, the town began to change even more. After every step he took, the asphalt rose, becoming ash and revealing grating, heat coming up from below, matching how the church had changed.

"Cheryl, Cheryl, can you hear me?" He jostled the woman, but she made no noise and he had no choice but to keep running. Things were crawling out of the wood-works, getting closer and closer to him as he maneuvered around sudden potholes and debris that was littering the ground. Chris had no idea where he was going, he only knew that he needed to find shelter for him and Cheryl, and fast.

Monsters started moving behind him, pushing him away from side streets and swiping at his feet as he ran, shifting Heather so she was easier to carry, before reaching a break in the ground. Without even thinking, he threw Heather over before jumping himself.

He checked to see if the toss had injured Heather, cursing himself for thinking throwing her was a good option, but didn't seem to find any new injuries. He grabbed her up again, and started dodging larger monsters. Chased around a corner, Chris found himself at the edge of a black hole, ground on the other side too far away to safely throw Heather or to jump. He turned to go back, to find another way, when something large stepped out of the darkness and started to move towards him.

Chris looked at the menacing thing that was advancing. He set Cheryl on the ground in front of him, and drew his weapon. He aimed at the thing and started to shoot, but his bullets seemed to just bounce off of it. And to make things worse, he could see smaller enemies making their way towards him as well. As his gun clicked, empty, he lowered it, staring at the thing as it moved closer, and reached for a clip to reload. But before he could bring his gun up again, it had raised its arm, and swung.

Chris cringed, waiting for the pain, and death that would come as it knocked them over into the dark pit he was standing in front of, into god know what below.


	14. Chapter 14

Chris stayed in a defensive position for a few seconds, before opening his eyes and looking around. He and Heather should have been dead, should have been knocked away, but instead he was looking at a young girl in a blue school uniform. She had caught the monsters arm in one frail looking arm, and the smaller ones were slinking away.

She turned her head to him, and he holstered his gun before picking up Heather. She then turned back to the monster, and raised her other arm, holding one finger up as if she was scolding the thing. It screeched in pain before falling to its knees and it slowly disappeared.

"Thank you…" Chris said as he stepped past the girl, weary, but she turned away again, fading away herself. Chris shook his head, before almost walking into another young girl. This one was younger than the other one, and she was wearing a pink corduroy turtleneck and a denim dress.

"Shh, follow me before they come back." She whispered to him, before she turned and started to run. Chris jogged after her, never quite being able to catch up to her, but staying within sight. He moved through decomposing building, crumbling rubble falling around him, before running out in front of the elementary school.

"Wait… I thought I already passed this place" he muttered to himself, before realizing that the girl was not going past the school, but over to a utility building beside it. He reached it just as she slipped down the ladder.

He stopped and looked down the ladder, into the darkness, before adjusting his grip on Heather, who was turning grey and was freezing. Somehow, Chris managed to maneuver her into a position that allowed him to start down the ladder right as something behind him started to bay. He reached the bottom of the ladder quickly, and turned to look for his guide.

She was nowhere to be found, but his flashlight picked up what looked like crayon arrows drawn on the ground.

"So I follow this then?" He wondered, as he started to walk. Heather's radio had gone silent, and as Chris walked through a tunnel that lead to the sewers proper, he let himself be lulled into a sense of safety.

And so, when he heard something clanging on the walkway, he thought it was the girl again, even though he'd been following her signs, and did not expect the large green cockroach that launched itself at him.

He had stumbled at the last moment, a patch of poorly constructed grating, so the bug had just grazed Chris' legs, instead of hitting him full on. He stumbled to the side, and without looking back to get a better look, he started to run.

More and more of the bugs started to appear, and one that was hanging down from a piece of ductwork managed to snag a chunk out of Chris's face, before the arrows point up to safety.

Or, as safe as Silent Hill could be.

Blood streaming down his face, Chris climbed out of the sewer, adjusted his hold on Heather, and looked…through the girl who had helped him.

"They're just down there, your friends!" She said, before looking down the street. "But more things are coming and I can't help anymore. Bye!" She waved at him, before running off towards the lake.

Chris watched her go, before wiping blood from his face, and setting off. After a few steps he realized he would have to run again as smaller bugs started nipping his feet, and the weird, lumpy things that had cornered Rebecca started attempting to heard him away from his destination.

As he started jogging, more and more things started to appear, and soon he found his speed matched by bizarre looking dogs and lurching nurses. As he turned the corner, huge, lumbering things turned what he thought was their heads towards him, and what looked like a puppet started to screech and grapple for him.

As more and more superficial wounds started to dot his arms and legs, Chris could see the motel ahead, and knowing that the things were right behind him, he decided to…forgo the door.

\--

Back in the motel, a sobbing Laura was curled up with Claire on the bed with Cybil, when something came crashing through the window that Claire had been so worried about. Everyone jumped, Laura screamed, and they pointed their weapons at…

"Chris!?" Claire scrambled off the bed as her brother sat up.

"Lisa, take Cheryl. Everyone else, guns ready!" Chris staggered up, bleeding from hitting the glass and his trip through the streets, and turned back to the window.

Lisa hurried over and knelt at Heathers side. "Oh my god, what happened? Chris, what happened to her?" Lisa's voice wavered, and small drops of blood started to fall from her face.

"Dahlia did…something. With a triangular… thing." Was his unsure reply, and Lisa sobbed, dropping her head down onto Heather.

"Then none of us are safe anymore." Lisa raised her head, looking up at Chris. "Did you bring it with you?"

"What? The thing? No…The church was collapsing. I didn't have time to look for it." Him and Barry started to shoot then, and Laura cringed, curling up against Cybil.

"Oh no…If you had it, I probably could stop all of this!" Lisa said, hysterical. "But now…"

"What was the thing then?" Jill asked, joining Chris and Barry. "Oh shit…I think you were right about that doctor of yours, Lisa. He's headed this way and he's got friends."

"Her power…Basically, whatever Dahlia did is killing her. And now…" Lisa had gone pale, the only colour on her face smudged lines of blood. "And now she has no control over the town. It's trying to kill us."

"Oh god." Douglas whispered. "Can you help her, Lisa?"

"I…I don't know!" Lisa said, more blood falling onto the ground, on to Heather's shirt. "If this is hurting her, then I can't…she's the most powerful thing in this town, so the only one who can let me help her is the town, the cult's…god."

"Lisa," she looked up at Douglas, who'd scrambled off the other bed and now had a rifle in his hand. "Please, do anything you can. Don't let anything happen to her too. I don't know what'd I'd do if she was gone too." She nodded at him, wordlessly, and he turned to crouch by the window, firing at the creatures that approached.

Everyone who could, had drawn their weapons, and started to fire. Cybil and Laura were hiding behind the one bed, Cybil's legs still too sore to do much of anything, and Laura too young.

"Do they have a weak spot?" Jill asked, shooting blindly into the throng, her bullets going through the ranting doctor and pushing back the monstrosities behind him.

"Uhm, not really?" Douglas replied, wincing each time he shot, his shoulder tender. "I'd just say if it's got a head, shoot there. Otherwise body shots or shoot them in the legs. Maybe they'll fall and take their friends with em."

"Great." It seemed like no matter how many things fell, more appeared to take their place, and as they inched closer and closer to the motel, the group noticed that they were starting to run dry.

Douglas realized it first, when his rifle clicked empty and he didn't have anything to reload with. Then Claire ran out, anxiously patting herself down, hoping that she'd find one more clip.

As the rest of them realized they were running out, Jill emptying her second to last clip and Barry switching to his back-up gun, a magnum with only 6 shots, Lisa started to murmur to Heather's body, leaning over her, rubbing her hands, and praying.

"Please…Let me help her. Let me help Alessa, Heather. Please, God." Lisa whispered, and everything went quiet. The monsters outside stilled, and everyone inside the motel lowered their guns and backed away. Something had changed, something was making the monsters back away, despite Kauffman's urgings.

"Lisa! What's happening!?" Claire hissed, but instead Lisa drooped, her head bowed so her face was obscured.

\--

When Lisa opened her eyes, she was in some nightmarish world, Heather crouched in the center, shrouded by Cheryl, Alessa, a woman dressed in white, and…

"Harry…" Lisa murmured, and she took a step, only to find herself further from Heather. "What?"

She looked around, now barely able to see Heather through a haze. There were dark…things creeping through a barrier around her, and Lisa narrowed her eyes, and started running.

For every step forwards, Heather seemed to move further away, so Lisa switched tactics, and started to run sideways, then diagonally. When that didn't get her any closer, Lisa turned, faced into the darkness, the thing that was creeping forward, killing Heather. She took a deep breath, and stepped forward. The first few steps were fine, but as she battled her way through the blackness, she could feel it pressing on her, blood pouring and her back contorting from the pressure.

She refused to stop though, knowing that she was getting closer to Heather, because she could hear crying, and then Alessa appeared.

"What are you doing?" she asked, looking at Lisa.

Lisa looked down at the pale, thin ghost. "She's dying, you're dying! I can't let that happen, I need to help her."

Alessa looked confused, and Lisa could see that the darkness was getting closer and closer to Heather. "I don't understand. If she dies, then everything will end. Don't you want that?"

Lisa shook her head. "No, not if it will kill her! She has too many people who care for her still out there…And what if her, you, dying doesn't do anything? Then she's gone, and there will be no one to save those who wander into this town. There has got to be a way for me to help, Alessa!"

Alessa opened her moth to speak, before hesitating. She looked behind her, and Lisa could make out the wavering form of the little girl Heather had once been starting to fade.

"Please." She said, and Alessa crumbled.

"You can help her, but it will destroy you." She whispered, and Lisa realized she was upset. "I don't want you to be destroyed! I need you to stay!"

Now the figure on white was wavering, and Lisa pulled Alessa's shade into a hug. "I don't mind, being destroyed. I've been dead for years and years, remember? But you need to let me help, or else you won't be here for me to help!"

"Okay…" Alessa whispered, and grabbed Lisa's had, dragging her through the last of the darkness and over to Heather.

Still holding onto Alessa's hand, Lisa knelt and grasped Heather's shoulder, trying to get her to look up. But when she wouldn't move, wouldn't even shift when Lisa shook her gently, she looked back at Alessa.

"what do I do?"

Alessa shook her head, and pulled Lisa up. "You can't do anything. I have to do it." There was a gasp, and Lisa turned to see the white figure gone, and Harry the only one still holding Heather. "It will hurt her though."

"What will you do?" Lisa asked.

"I have to take the power it's trying to devour from her, and give it to you. You're…dead already, so you can push outward, destroy the nightmare I created." Alessa replied. "She will still have to power to create, to control, and the thing that grows inside her will still remain. I…we cannot ever change that."

Lisa nodded, "Okay. I'm ready. Let me help her, please." Even if it would destroy her, Heather needed to get out of the town.

Alessa hugged Lisa once more, before something flowed from Heather into the beloved nurse.

\--

Lisa started to stand, a light moving from Heather for her, and suddenly her head snapped up. Something, dark specs, started to swirl around her, and shades of people, a little girl, a teenager, a woman in white, and a tall man in a brown coat, started to walk along with her. She pulled open the door and the darkness outside started to funnel towards them as they walked out towards Kauffman.

"What, what are you doing?!" The dead doctor yelled, watching as Lisa approached him, and as the monsters, both dead and alive, started to fade, disintegrating.

Lisa didn't reply, and instead grabbed him by his coat and started dragging him off, talking him with her as she turned and walked towards the lake. The shades that had appeared, the ghosts, turned and went their own way, the little girl heading back towards where the amusement park was, the teenager to the school, the woman in white back where Chris had carried Heather from, and the man back around the motel, heading to Old Silent Hill.

"What's going on, what happened?" Cybil asked from where she was, sitting behind the bed, on the floor with Laura.

"I- I don't know." Jill said, holstering her gun as the radios in the room stopped blaring static. "The things, they're all gone!"

As everyone started to get their bearings back, Barry noticed something strange. "Look!"

He pointed out the shattered window, and those who could stand could see cars and people starting to flicker into view.

"What's going on? "Claire asked, bending to pick up Laura and to help Cybil up.

"everything's changing back, going back to normal." Douglas pulled himself up from where he'd crouched by the window, and turned to Chris. "We'd better get moving before the people at this motel noticed the window. And us."

"Agreed." With than, Chris had everyone moving, not even waiting to let Rebecca fix up the scrapes he had. He dug around for his wallet, leaving a card and a note telling the owner to contact the Bureau, and to ask for Redfield, before they quickly moved out of the motel.

As they moved through the streets, the fog started to disappear and the people living in Silent Hill started to appear. They must have made for an odd sight, Cybil and Douglas leaning against Jill and Chris, Claire carrying Laura, and Barry carrying Heather. Rebecca was leading the way, maps held tightly in her hands, brushing off the concerns of the citizens.

"What happened?! Do you need help, should I call an ambulance?" One woman asked, jogging away from her shop, a horrified look on her face at the sight of Cybil's legs.

"Thank you, Ma'am, but we have everything under control. Thank you though." Rebecca politely said, before shaking out her map. "But…If we keep following this street we'll reach the cemetery, correct?" They had decided to go back the way they'd came, in an attempt to attract less attention.

The woman looked taken back, before glancing at Heather and narrowing her eyes. "Yes…but why are you headed that way? What are you doing?"

Rebecca didn't answer, the group moving again, hurrying faster as more and more people turned to stare.

As they got closer to the cemetery, a police car screeched to a halt next to them, and two officers got out, stopping the group.

"What are you doing" One of the officers asked, and Cybil sighed, frustrated.

"Cybil Bennet, Brahms PD." She said, flashing her badge. "These two are Douglas Cartland and Cheryl Mason, two of my officers. The rest of these people are from the United States government. And this girl here-" she pointed to Laura, "- is a witness to a murder we've been investigating. Now, you can go and call in my badge number, but then I will have a write up for obstructing a case and send it to your chief."

"but-" the one officer started, but the other one shook his head.

"Right, 'Cybil Bennet, Brahms PD', I'll see the badge then. You were heading to the grave yard, so I don't trust you." He smirked, and Cybil sighed.

Everyone settled in as the officer called Brahms, and Douglas smiled as the disgruntled officer handed his phone over to Cybil, the officer on the other end frantic with worry.

"Louis, Louis! Listen, we're mostly fine, but we need you to meet us. Now, you don't need to come here, but there is this rest stop halfway. Yeah, we should be fine in the one car till then, but we've got injured…Oh, and get someone brave with a truck to come along the regular rout. My bike's been left and I need it picked up."

The officers watched as they started on their way again, the one muttering angrily as they left, the other driving off in the car.

"What was up with that?" Claire asked Cybil.

"The second officer, I wouldn't give him a job," Cybil said, wincing as she walked. "And so he's got something against me, and my people. He won't be a threat though; at least once we get back to Brahms. All my officers were warned about him, so if he comes into town, we'll know."

Everyone went quiet again, walking through the graveyard, dodging the half broken gravestones and the sketchy looking grave keeper. The gate on the other side was locked, but Barry smashed it open, and they hurried through at the grave keeper started moving towards them, screaming at them for breaking the lock.

As they made their way up to the rest stop, Claire moved ahead with Laura, and was the first one to the car. There were a few people loitering, looking at the SUV's and as Claire and Laura went to open one and get in, one of them snapped at her.

"That's your car? It's been parked there for hours! Don't you know that other people need to park here!?." A man yelled, and Claire turned and glared.

"Oh...Sorry? There are other parking spots you know..." Claire had no idea what was wrong with the guy, and she turned away, searching in her pockets for the keys she was sure she'd taken off of Chris.

The man had reached out to Claire as his wife and children watched, when Rebecca jogged over, her gun in plain sight. "Claire! Good, the rental is in good condition. Chris would flip if it had gotten all banged up." She held up the keys, and unlocked the doors.

"Pft, yeah." Claire also turned so the man could see her gun, and he backed away as his wife started to call someone. "Where's everyone else?"

Rebecca turned a warning look to the family, before replying. "Cybil's legs are bugging her. If you give me Laura, can you go help?"

"Yeah, sure." Claire passed Laura over to Rebecca, before jogging back through the trees to assist. The woman was speaking frantically into her phone now, and her husband then tried to grab for Rebecca.

She was faster though than him though, and quickly put Laura in the car. She then locked it and darted out of the man's reach. "You do realize we can arrest you if you continue to act in this behaviour, sir…although I have no idea why you're acting like this."

But before the hoity-toity tourist could say anything else, the rest of the group filed out of the forest. Claire was helping Jill carry Cybil up the hill, and Heather was looking less and less gray.

"I've called the police, you know." The woman said, clutching her phone close to her, and Douglas turned to look at her.

"And here we are! What was your issue?" he said.

"What? But…" The woman said, as the same police cruiser that had stopped the group before pulled up. The one officer, not the one that Cybil had refused to hire got out, saw them, and sighed.

"Officer, there people are obviously trying to kidnap a child and look at them! Guns out im plain sight? They are a danger to our children!" The man bellowed, but the officer shook his head.

"No can do. That's the chief of police from Brahms, two of her officers, and a bunch of government officials. So there's not much I can do. The government trumps small town police. Was there anything else? Or were you just calling to be a pest, sir? And may I say, that you sir, are illegally parked? That can factor into a hefty ticket, sir."

With a chuckle, the group left the tourists to the officer and started moving. There were way too many people in the car now, and with the injured, space was tight. Heather was propped up between Douglas and Jill, and Claire had Laura sitting on her lap.

A few minutes down the highway, Heather shifted, and Rebecca twisted from the front seat to check on her. "Cheryl? Are you awake?" Heather didn't respond, and Douglas gently shook her shoulder.

"Cheryl, can you hear me?" he asked, and Heather groaned, shifting again. Despite Douglas and Jill's best efforts, she didn't wake, not until after they returned to Brahms, after a few days in hospital with Douglas and Cybil.

\--

Heather had just put Laura to bed when Sam knocked on the door.

"Hey there. I just stuck Laura in my room to sleep, so we'll have to watch bad movies quietly." Heather said, and Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I got it. How's Douglas doing?" she asked as she followed Heather into the living room. "How are you too? I mean, Jeeze. Silent Hill…and then you were in the hospital! I mean, all three of you…how did those government people get away without any big injuries?"

"Douglas is doing fine, he's still in the hospital though. They want to watch his shoulder to make sure it doesn't get worse." Heather replied, before bending and turning on the TV. "I'm…I think I'm okay. I had some weird dreams when I was under, but I'm okay. Not eager to go back to Silent Hill though. Plus, with Douglas hurt, and now Laura here. It's just…new for me."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I get that. When my cousin came to live with me after her mom died, it sure was interesting, trying to adjust to another person. I'm sure you'll do fine, though. She seems to like you, from what I've seen." After Heather had woken and gotten her stuff back together, she had taken Laura in to the station after seeing Claire off. Everyone else had hurried back, but Claire had stayed to watch Laura while Heather was unconscious.

Heather reached around a corner to grab two popped bags of popcorn. "Yeah…But we…had some pitfalls while we were there. Cybil fell trying to get to Laura, Douglas fell down some stairs and hit some metal, and then I fell and knocked myself out. I just think the others had better shoes, honestly. Or they'd be as banged up as us."

Heather went quiet as the movie started, glad that Sam understood that she didn't want to talk, not really. She didn't know if the town was fixed now, if Lisa's sacrifice for her had changed things.

All Heather knew was that she was never going back.

\--

Somewhere, in a dimly lit room:

A monstrosity, with the appearance of two pairs of legs attached at the waist, is beating on a pane of glass as a man peers in at it. Several other monstrosities of many different types are in other enclosures, some roaring, some beating on the glass, as the man turns away.

Everything was going perfectly.


End file.
